Taiwan's Evergreen will start a weekly container shuttle between Piraeus and Taranto, called the 'Piraeus-Taranto Shuttle' (PTS), to be operated by its Italian affiliate Italia Marittima using the chartered 737-TEU Consouth.

The launch of the PTS coincides with the discontinuation of Evergreen's mainline calls at Taranto, its old Mediterranean hub until it switched to Piraeus.

Taranto loses its last two deep sea services that Evergreen sent to the port, the Mediterranean-Far East-West Coast North America 'UAM' Pendulum and the Greece-Turkey (GTS) service, reported Alphaliner.

Starting October 1, Evergreen-Italia is also to re-organise its services between Piraeus and the Marmara ports, with a new Piraeus-Marmara service (PMS).

The loop will call weekly at Piraeus, Haydarpasa (Istanbul), Gebze, Gemlik, Piraeus using the 672-TEU Helena Sibum, which was taken from the shipping line's Greece-Cyprus Service (GCY) that will be discontinued at the end of September.

Haydarpasa, Gebze and Gemlik were previously served from Piraeus by the carrier's Greece Turkey Service (GTS), which is being reconfigured, with a new rotation covering only Piraeus, Istanbul, Izmir, Thessaloniki, Piraeus, while the Taranto call will be cut.

The revamped GTS will be launched on October 8 from Piraeus, and will be operated by only one vessel as opposed to two previously, namely, the 2,824-TEU Ital Oriente.