BUSSLEIÐIN The Tórshavn city bus network  (the red buses)

Tórshavn is the capital of the Faroe Islands.   By international standards a small capital with a population of some 15,000 people - about a third of the total population of the islands.  But it is big enough to have its own network of  bus routes, linking the commercial centre with the housing developments on the hills around the town.  

The first experimental operation of town services in the Faroese capital was for one day on Saturday 5 August 1978, using two buses.  This was followed by the establishment of regular services from June 1979, contracted by the town council to operator p/f Bil.  The half-hourly route pattern of operation required three vehicles, these were Volvo B58 chassis with 29 seat VBK bodies.  

At that time there was a complicated network of six services, as under:

Monday - Friday daytime and Saturday morning (half hourly) -
   Hoyvik - R C Effersøesgøta - Miđbýur (out and back)
   Miđbýur - Marknagilsvegur - Landavegur - Miđbýur (circular)
   Miđbýur - Eysturskúli - Miđstađarøkiđ - Ternuryggur (out and back)
   Miđbýur - Landavegur - Sjúkrahús - Miđbýur (circular)
   Miđbýur - Bursatangi - Miđbýur (circular)
   Miđbýur - R C Effersøesgøta - Gundadalur - Varđagøta - Miđbýur (circular)

Monday - Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, Sunday all day (hourly, except 4, half hourly) -
   Hoyvik - R C Effersøesgøta - Miđbýur (out and back)
   Miđbýur - Marknagilsvegur - Landavegur - Miđbýur (circular)
   Miđbýur - Eysturskúli - Ternuryggur (out and back)
   Miđbýur - Landavegur - Sjúkrahús - Miđbýur (circular)
   Miđbýur - Eysturskúli - Miđstađarøkiđ (out and back)
   Miđbýur - R C Effersøesgøta - Gundadalur - Varđagøta - Miđbýur (circular).

Miđbýur being the location now referred to as Steinatún.  Service to Argir was added in 1980 and to Hvitanes in 1981. The northern loop joining Ternuryggur to Hoyvik / Hvitanes was first operated in 1982 and service reached Norđasta Horn in 1985.

By 1998 the buses were provided on behalf of the Kommuna (town council) by four private contractors (Mouritsen, Berg, Blahamar and Gunleif).  The name Bussleiðin is Faroese for `bus routes'.   Country buses in the  Faroes are operated by Bygdaleiðir.

Double issue Ultimate ticket for single journey 10 krone fare (1998)		Picture taken at Steinatun in central Tórshavn in 1992

The four contractors, each with two buses, operated the comprehensive red bus network of three main circular routes.  These served all parts of the town from Argir and Norðasta Horn to Hoyvik and Hvitanes, with timed connections between routes at Steinatun in the town centre.  (Steinatun is a point on J Paturssonargøta on the map below).  The adult flat fare was 10 krone in 1998.  The frequencies and service levels were generous, and the buses ran also hourly to late evening and on Sundays. The vehicle requirement was six buses for the weekday service, and these were provided on a four weekly cycle by the four contractors. The drivers worked a basic five day week of straight six hour shifts, which seems less than onerous when compared to British practice.  Some 2,700 passenger journeys were made a day, from Tórshavn's population of 15,000 people.

This is the 1995 route map.   Route 4 (then operated separately by the blue Bygdaleiðir country buses on behalf  of the Kommuna) disappears off the top of the map to run via Kaldbaksbotnur to the village of Kaldbak, a more distant part of the Tórshavn community.  This pattern of three half-hourly circular routes plus the Kaldbak service was operated throughout the 1990's.

The Bussleiðin network was enhanced in 2001 by the addition of new routes 5 and 6.  Routes 1 to 4 continued unchanged.  Route 5 following part of route 4 from the town centre to Kaldbaksbotnur but then proceeding through the road tunnel and along the eastern shore to the township of Kollafjørður, now also part of the enlarged Tórshavn community (and also served along the same roads by Bygdaleiðir trunk route 400 from Tórshavn to Leirvik and Fuglafjørður).  Route 6 was a new hourly circular service starting from a previously unserved part of Argir called Hamarin, and proceeding through Marknagil, Sundsvegur, Vegurin Langi, Hvitanesvegur and Yviri við Strond to the town centre.  It linked several of the schools and colleges in the town to residential areas.

Further revisions and simplification of the Tórshavn bus network took place in February 2003.  Routes 4 and 5 were combined to operate as route 4 from Tórshavn to Kaldbak, returning to Kaldbaksbotnur and through the tunnel to Kollafjørður.  Route 6 was discontinued and town routes 1, 2 and 3 reorganised as under. The routes are complicated and circular.  Each operates half hourly Monday to Friday daytime, hourly in the evenings and hourly on Saturday and Sunday - but there is no longer an evening service on Saturday or Sunday.

    1.        Hamarin - Sjúkrahús - Steinatun - Gundadalur - Undir Brunni - Varðagøta - Sjúkrahús - Marknagil - Bursatangi - Steinatun -

               Marknagil - Hamarin

    2.        Argir - Sjúkrahús - Steinatun - Yviri við Strond - Hvitanes - Inni á Gøtu - Sundsvegur - Steinatun -  Sjúkrahús - Argir

    3.        Norðasta Horn - Landavegur - Steinatun - Sundsvegur - Millum Gilja - Litlagil - Yviri við Strond - Steinatun - Landavegur -

               Norðasta Horn

With the 2004 timetable routes 4 and 5 were separated again, at least on Mondays to Fridays, remaining jointly operated as route 4 on Saturdays and Sundays. Route 1 was slightly amended in the middle of its circular peregrinations to serve the SMS shopping centre instead of Bursatangi.  On a brief visit to Tórshavn in 2006 it was noted that school special services had been extended to include Kirkjubøur and Velbastaður to the west.  The timetable issued in January 2007 showed little change to the operating pattern of the main services and for the first time full details of the school services (skúlaleið 1 to 5) were included in the timetable booklet.   From March 2008 the Monday to Friday daytime timetable for routes 1, 2 and 3 has been increased to a 20 minute frequency

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The Faroe Islands revisited - the 2004 update

Join me on a busman's holiday in the Faroe Islands in 1998