Two new ferries - the largest to operate on the Dover-Calais crossing - are to come into service within the next three years.
P&O Ferries has signed a near-£300m contract for the two vessels - each of 49,000 gross tonnes - with Finland's Aker shipyard.
The first of the ships will enter service in December 2010 and the second in September 2011, replacing the Pride of Dove
r and the Pride of Calais.
The company has taken options on a further two vessels of the same design.
The ferries will be 210 metres long and will be the first Channel ferries designed to manoeuvre under their own power in 50-knot winds.
They will have space for more than 180 freight vehicles, more than doubling the freight-carrying capacity of the ships they are replacing, whilst additionally providing a third vehicle deck for up to 195 tourist vehicles. They will be capable of carrying up to 2,000 passengers.
Pride of Dover was the last new vessel to carry the name Townsend Thoresen - a name that was changed to P&O European Ferries after the disaster involving the Townsend Thoresen vessel, Herald of Free Enterprise, at Zeebrugge in March 1987, in which more than 190 lives were lost.
Both Pride of Dover and Pride of Calais have been in service since 1987, with Pride of Calais being launched at an emotional ceremony in Germany in April 1987 during which a minute's silence was observed in memory of the Zeebrugge dead.
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