Sealink was originally the brand name for the ferry services of
British Rail in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Services to France, Belgium and the Netherlands were run by Sealink UK as part of the Sealink consortium which also used ferries owned by French national railways (
SNCF), the Belgian Maritime Transport Authority
Regie voor Maritiem Transport/Regie des transports maritimes (RMT/RTM) and the Dutch
Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland (Zeeland Steamship Company). Historically, the shipping services were exclusively an extension of the railways across the
English Channel and the
Irish Sea in order to provide through, integrated services to Europe and Ireland. As international travel became more popular in the late 1960s and before air travel became generally affordable, the responsibility for shipping services was taken away from the British Rail Regions and in 1969 centralised in a new division – British Rail Shipping and International Services Division. With the advent of car ferry services, the old passenger-only ferries were gradually replaced by
roll-on/roll-off ships, catering for motorists and rail passengers as well as road freight. However, given that there was now competition in the form of other ferry companies offering crossings to motorists, it became necessary to market the services in a normal business fashion (as opposed to the previous almost monopolistic situation). Thus, with the other partners mentioned above, the brand name Sealink was introduced for the consortium. locomotive
Britomart being hauled by a
British Rail Bedford TK tractor unit, with a Sealink promotion of the
Great Little Trains of Wales, during the
St Patrick's Day Parade in 1974 in
Dublin. In November 1970, Belgium Marine joined the Sealink consortium with five car ferries and six passenger ships. As demand for international rail travel declined and the shipping business became almost exclusively dependent on passenger and freight vehicle traffic, the ferry business was
incorporated as Sealink UK Limited on 1 January 1979, a wholly owned subsidiary of the
British Railways Board (BRB), but still part of the Sealink consortium. In 1979, Sealink acquired
Manx Line which offered services to the Isle of Man from Heysham. with Sealink in large letters On 27 July 1984 the
UK Government sold Sealink UK Limited to
Sea Containers for £66m. The company was renamed Sealink British Ferries. In 1991, Sea Containers sold Sealink British Ferries to
Stena Line. The sale excluded the operations of
Hoverspeed, the
Isle of Wight services and the share in the
Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, as well as the
Port of Heysham. The new owners rebranded the company as Sealink Stena Line, then again a few years later to Stena Sealink Line. In 1996, the Sealink name disappeared when the UK services were re-branded as Stena Line. The agreement with the SNCF on the Dover to
Calais route also ended at this time and the French-run Sealink services were rebranded as
SeaFrance. ==Livery==