Buses and Bridges, Ferries and Funnels ......
Some musings on recent Faroese transport history
by Peter Roberts
First of all I must confess that the title of this article is a little misleading: it should really have been called buses and bridges, ferries and tunnels, but I couldn’t resist the temptations of alliteration. And anyway, many ferries do have funnels …..
The building of bridges and tunnels in the Faroe Islands over the past twenty to thirty years has led to a natural expansion of the bus and road network, but it also has often meant the withdrawal of a long standing ferry service. As befits a mountainous island community with a population scattered in a succession of coastal towns and villages, the traditional means of communication was by boat and ferry. This lasted until well after the second world war. Road networks have only come comparatively recently to the Faroe Islands, and the main road linking the capital Tórshavn to Vestmanna on the island of Streymoy was only completed in 1964.
I can only claim acquaintance with the Faroe Islands (and an interest in the transport system) for a little under thirty years and I acquired my first Faroe Islands Travel Guide in 1974. This was a period of road building and it is interesting to compare some of the routes and services provided in the mid-1970’s with current day practice. The Streymin bridge across Sundini, linking Streymoy to Eysturoy by road for the first time, had just opened on 30th October 1973. This is often referred to as the Bridge over the Atlantic! Prior to this ferry boats had plied the waters of Sundini, connecting at Hvalvik with a bus to Saksun and at Oyri with buses to Eiði, Funningur and Gjógv. Once the bridge opened there were new daily bus services linking Tórshavn directly with these places. The vehicles at the time were privately operated minibuses and midibuses, typically cream and brown Toyotas and Scanias with 20 to 26 seats. This of course was long before the establishment of the current state controlled integrated Strandfaraskip Landsin (SL) ferries and Bygdaleiðir (BL) buses system.
Streymin - the bridge over the Atlantic
To travel north from Tórshavn to Klaksvik there were several options in the early 1970’s, including a direct ferry once a day between the two towns operated by either the Smyril or the Pride. Alternatively one could take the ferry Trondur from Tórshavn across to Toftir, and then a car or minibus to Leirvik, followed by another ferry journey on the Ternan to finally reach the northern town of Klaksvik.
The piercing of the 2.5 km long tunnel in 1976 between Oyrarbakki and Skálabotnur connected the former two halves of the road system on the island of Eysturoy and led to a significant restructuring of the public transport routes linking Streymoy with Eysturoy. For a few years after the Streymin bridge opened an hourly vehicular ferry, appropriately named Sundaferjan, continued to operate across Sundini from Hósvik to Selatrað, but this ceased with the opening of the tunnel. There were now through buses from Tórshavn across the new bridge and through the new tunnel to the Eysturoy communities, including Runavík and Toftir as well as Leirvik for the Klaksvik ferry. The direct ferry route between Klaksvik and Tórshavn all but ceased and the Tórshavn – Toftir ferry became a peak-hour only operation.
On Streymoy, to reach Kaldbak (now part of the enlarged Tórshavn community) in 1974 you travelled on the daily ferry boat Sildberin. Now the journey takes less than thirty minutes on the four times a day bus. In the northern islands, to reach Kunoy from Klaksvik meant catching the ferry Barskor. Thanks to a new causeway and a 3 km road tunnel opened in 1998, the journey is now easily accomplished by bus.
Although the buses have changed in appearance, size and comfort over the years, some of the ferries listed in the 1974 guide still ply through Faroese waters, although not always on the same routes now as then. Old friends like Smyril, Sam, Ritan, Barskor and Ternan still provide essential links between the islands today.
So now the modern day Faroe Islands have a fully integrated (and subsidised) transport system with the SL ferries and the blue country buses of BL, with through fares and through tickets, and the buses connecting with each other and with the ferries. As the tunnels and bridges expand, so will the public transport opportunities. The new 1993 tunnel (2.8 km in length between Kaldbaksfjørður and Kollfjarðardalur) which has largely replaced the upland Oyggjarvegur road between Tórshavn and Vestmanna has considerably shortened the journey time to and from the airport. And now a tunnel is being constructed to link Streymoy to the island of Vágur so that through buses will run to and from the airport. First proposed in 1989 from Leynar, this tunnel will lead to the demise of the ferry service between Vestmanna and Vágur, and whilst this will no doubt be good for the island of Vágur and airport travellers in some ways, it will also put Vágur, like Eysturoy, within daily commuting distance of the capital. This will be the first tunnel built under the sea in the Faroe Islands, so as the Streymin bridge is known as the bridge over the Atlantic, this will no doubt become known as the Atlantic Tunnel !
Since this article was written the under-sea road tunnel linking the islands of Streymoy and Vagar was opened in December 2002. Buses on route 300 now run through between the airport and the capital Tórshavn and the ferry service between Vestmanna and Oyrargjójv on Vágur was withdrawn. Then in April 2006 the road tunnel from Leirvik on Eysturoy to Klaksvik on Borðoy was opened and the ferry service to Klaksvik ceased operation, with bus route 400 extended to operate from Tórshavn through to Klaksvik. Future plans include a tunnel linking Streymoy with Sandoy.
