SeaFrance quickly became the second busiest operator on the Dover-Calais route after P&O European Ferries and ahead of their former partners now known as Stena Line.

Because the French local government did not want the route to be lost, they started a subsidized line called Transmanche Ferries in April 2001.

After five years of service and the arrival of two new-build ships, the government had to tender the line in a concession to comply with European Union regulations.

[9] At the hearing on 16 November, the commercial court ordered the liquidation of SeaFrance, but allowed the ferry operator to continue trading until 28 January 2012.

However, actual ferry operations were shut down, with the administrators claiming that the safety of vessels, staff and property could not be guaranteed.

On 19 December 2011, the commercial court in Paris postponed its decision on the takeover bid for SeaFrance submitted by the co-operative until 3 January.

The main staff union, the CFDT, was back in Paris the following day, to hear the appeal court's verdict on its request that SeaFrance's ferries be allowed to return to service.

"The judicial administrators withdrew their request that SeaFrance be liquidated with immediate effect and this was good news", said a senior official of the CFDT.

[13] Until June 2015 Eurotunnel leased the acquired vessels to a new company, "MyFerryLink", essentially a workers' co-operative of former Seafrance employees.