 Townsend Thoresen had begun a twice daily service from Felixstowe to Zeebrugge in 1974.By 1978, European Ferries had purpose built a passenger and freight terminal from which its subsidiary Townsend Thoresen could operate.Under the management of European Ferries, Felixstowe increased its container handling capacity to approximately 500,000 per annum and in 1980 a total of 252,802 containers were handled, making it the United Kingdoms largest container port.