Direct Line established high levels of recall among consumers. In September 2014, the brand worked with Saatchi and Saatchi to relaunch its advertising, using Hollywood actor Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe, a Mafia style 'fixer'. The company had one million customers after eight years. The company expanded with a series of new offshoots in the 1990s. In 1995, a Spanish offshoot, Linea Direct, started offering motor insurance in Spain. They expanded into travel insurance in 1996, pet insurance in 1997, and Direct Line Breakdown started offering breakdown insurance in 1998. Their non general insurance products umbrella Direct Line Financial services launched their
Portsmouth Direct line Portsmouth Direct line The Portsmouth Direct line is a railway route between Woking in Surrey and Portsmouth Harbour in Hampshire, England. It forms the principal route for passenger trains between London and Portsmouth, and also provides a partial rail link to the Island Line on the Isle of Wight, with passengers disembarking at Portsmouth Harbour before taking the Wightlink catamaran service to Ryde Pier, where the Island Line commences at Ryde Pier Head. The name was derived unofficially, but has entered widespread use for the physical infrastructure between Woking and Portsmouth Harbour, and for the passenger train service from London