Outsourcing ferry services “will halt development”

The government is looking at outsourcing the ferry services to Fugloy, Svínoy and Kalsoy.

Transport minister Jørgen Niclasen said last week that the public ferry service, especially to the smaller islands, is too inflexible, especially with the current fleet of ferries, most of which are old and worn out.

“When we outsourced the ferry services to Mykines, we saw that the private operators were very quick to adapt to new circumstances,” he said. “The public ferry system, in comparison, is much more rigid, which is why it makes sense for us to consider other routes.”

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But this would only lead to even less reliability, and it would significantly slow down development on the small islands, according to Olga Biskopstø, coordinator at the Outlying Islands Association.

She sees the new plan to outsource some routes as a cop-out from the government.

“Instead of picking the easy option of outsourcing these routes, they should take a long-overdue look at improving the public ferry services so that they can meet today’s requirements.”

Translated by prosa.fo