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 a proposed amalgamation with the LBSCR was rejected by Parliament in the 1847 session. The difficulty in the money markets resulting from the collapse of the Railway Mania led to serious difficulty in starting work, and in fact the Direct Portsmouth line made no further progress; it was finally wound up on 31 July 1854. The LBSCR opened its Portsmouth line, between Chichester and Portsmouth, on 14 June 1847. Thus the second part of what became the Portsmouth Direct line was in being, between Havant and Portsmouth. The line was joint between the LBSCR and LSWR from Portcreek Junction to