tirvaluk Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 The Northlink boats are full at this time of year, so the only way they could squeeze in a run to Norway would be if they get the Danish ship they were looking at, she could do the run to Norway without effecting the trips to Aberdeen.But I heard Northlink have had second thoughts about her suitability for the run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoogler Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 New Ro-Pax ferry in winter to run instead of passenger ship - say from Jan to early April - then gets deployed on a limited Shetland Norway service for rhe summer months. Doesn't have to just be to one Norwegian port but could be two and could also operate a triangle with Aberdeen if Ro-Pax demand was there. Well worth looking into and from both ends as Norwegian demand may make it viable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Far Haaf Posted August 10, 2010 Report Share Posted August 10, 2010 Most posters here seem to have something against Kristiansund, and a great love of Bergen. Not that I understand, or care either way, but when Mr White tried to start the NURSHUKON service, it was because he had identified a freight requirement from Kristiansund which could make the service viable. Surely that is a good point to base a service on, and if Mr White has given up on his plans, then maybe other operators like Northlink should make inquiries in the Kristiansund area to see what business is available.Bergen, in the summer for tourists may be OK, but for a business like this to succeed it needs year round freight. That's what I think Mr White was getting at. I'll have to do some searching, but I'm sure I've read somewhere the reason why he tried to establish the Kristiansund link, and if I recall correctly, it made very good sense for Shetland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david Posted August 11, 2010 Report Share Posted August 11, 2010 Kristiansund was identified as the a main port because there is lots of freight in the north of Norway that at the moment has to travel by roads, roads that aren't the best quality of roads. There was (is) European funding available for a "motorway of the seas" that could take freight from Kirstiansund to the UK and continental Europe. I think either Rosyth or Newcastle was the choice of port in the UK for the Kristiansund link, and calling into Lerwick would only have added a couple of hours steaming time onto the journey. I still think the only way it will ever happen is if Northlink get this ropax vessel. Even if they only ran a Norway link for 6 weeks a year I think it would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavi Ugl Posted August 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2010 I'm guessing from what NorthLink have mentioned and the ship they are/were looking at that they've been doing a peerie bit of homework on a Shetland-Norway link. We might all be surprised and see an all year round cargo/passenger service established from Kristiansund or somewhere but if that doesn't work out but we do get a summer service I would suggest keeping it to a maximun of, say, 10 weeks. This would possibly equate to a full ship which would pay rather than stretching it out to 15+ weeks and have the ship running half empty for half the time. Make sense?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewMagnie Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 It makes sense if it makes sense. If I still lived in Shetland I'd prefer to see any government cash going towards a road equivalent tarrif on the North boats than indulging our Scandophile whimsy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandhopper Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 I know germans who've given up coming to shetland, as it's now so difficult, ...Well - not only Germans ! From my experience you may add Austrians, Swizz, Dutch ... and if there are ... other German speaking folks ... In our German speaking forums we have regular questions about 'how to get up there?' ... but following up what actually had happened, we find a very small number only that travelled to Shetland. Just some figures about the three forums of which I do have 'some control': i) This year we had roughly some 100 enquiries about Shetland before 1st August. ii) Only 3 out of those - of which we have a positive feed back - have visited Shetland ! The same figures for Orkney are 250 and about 85 respectively. Annother aspect which might be of interest:If you are interested in tourists from the continent, forget about Ro-Pax ferries ! Ro-Pax ferries are not accepted by continental clients ! I used to travel on both the the St Magnus und the St Rognvald for my journeys to and from Shetland and Orkney whenever it fitted into my time table, but over 30 years of travelling I never met a continental fellow traveller on board ! ... Despite that: NorfolkLine on route between Zeebrugge and Rossyth had a purpose built new Ro-Pax ferry (mv Scottish Viking) for that service ... just a year later NorfolkLine was sold to DFDS (to avoid the company going bankrupt) with DFDS bringing a new / different pax ferry into service from next year - as far as the rumors know. The forums in D / A / CH were full of complaints about the problem of 'travelling cars' on an open car deck with trucks and campers travelling on sheltered decks inside the boat. Continentals in general, Germans especially, they do like their cars ... when they do smell some salt in the air ... they do think about RUST ... "Safety" that is the safety of their car, folks do believe, they themselves can swim !!! Finally the RET:What we do see from our forums is simply the following effect - NOBODY knows whether or not the RET does make it cheaper to travel the Western Isles for tourists or not ?! Nevertheless we do have very clear evidence that simply the term "RET" sells !!! The typical reaction is: "Well, it is not cheap to go over to Lewis, but it is not more expensive than to travel the same distance to the North!" Following such an argument the real facts are out of interest: A tourist who once had decided to go to the North, accepts a little 'detour' via the route Mallaig-Uig-Tarbert and Stornoway-Ullapool and further on to Durness, because he knows, he would have to travel from Mallaig to Ullapool on the road anyway. It is the simpliest of marketing:The tourist reads RET = road equivalent tariff ... he thinks about his over all travelling distance from south to north ... he does not go into the details ...which are the like that the "equivalent" is valued for the detour route, only ! It is a completely irrational argument, anyway, but it works and I am sure, it could work on the turn from Scrabster to Orkney and further on to Shetland and returning to Aberdeen (or vice versa) ! The difference between the Western and the Northern Isles simply is: Western IslesThe informed tourists think about RET and book a Hopscotch ticket ! Northern IslesThere is neither RET nor can you book a Hopscotch ticket ... with NorthLink refusing to think about such tariff alternatives for the Northern Isles from the very first moment when they took over the business. In the good old days of P&O:I sent a letter to them, directly to their Aberdeen office at Jamieson's Quay in Aberdeen and asked about the equivalent of the CalMac Hopscotch ticket or similar ... and got a 15% reduction for my Aberdeen-Lerwick booking. No 'resident conditions' but a clear sign of 'you are welcome ...!' ... Oddrun said about the Norwegian companies which might be interested in the business or not:They are going up to Svalbard, so why not Shetland ????? In a similar way you may say:It - the whole bunch of CalMac-NorthLink - is a Scottish company, why do they treat the Northern Isles different than the Western Isles ????? Despite all that:With less than 10% of the capital bound to the disputable "windmill development" you could save a lot of local jobs by subsidising the tourists' tariffs for the outbound ferries down the normal islander tariffs ... it is completely up to you what you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 you wonder why the calmac/nlink treat us different to the western isles, simple really we are not scoty's and they know it, they will continue to treat us like sharn until we tell them where to get off.you are 100% right it is up to us, its just a pity that folk up here don't realise it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dagfinn Posted August 14, 2010 Report Share Posted August 14, 2010 Yes, and incredibly the online petition itself is coming towards 1000. I find petitions like these an interesting thing. If approached I would sign it as I like the idea of a Shetland - Norway link. Would I use it? Probably not. I am sure there are many who are the same,Same here, I will never use it, but anyting for Kavi Ugl At £10 for a pint of beer in Oslo, with the impending economic depression, how many folk in Shetland are going to be able to afford a holiday in Norway as time goes by?Exactly, and no offence to Oddrun, but Norway is the most expensive country in Europe (and the richest ). I used to live in Hirtshals, a town in the extreme north of Denmark, in the 1990's, and every day houndreds of Norwegians would take the 4 hour ferry trip from Kristianssand to Hirsthals to buy Meat and other Food (need I mention Liquor ), because it's so much cheaper in Denmark than in Norway.And all the German tourists on their way up to Norway going fishing, brought Food supply for the whole stay in Norway due to the high prices. Lerwick-Hanstholm would do me, notice smyril still say they do the route.Yes, and it could be a year-round route as well (Esbjerg in winter). From Hanstholm you can drive to Hirtshals and take the ferry to Bergen, Kristianssand, Larvik or Stavanger, or drive to Frederikshavn and take the ferry to Oslo or Gothenburg in Sweden.And it would not only connect Shetland with Scandinavia, but the whole of Europe. Once you're in Hanstholm, you're actually on the Continent.And this route would not only open Shetland as a tourist destination for 80 mio. Germans, it would also connect Shetland with Faroe and Iceland at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddrun Posted August 14, 2010 Report Share Posted August 14, 2010 Dagfinn, you are a sensible guy.........ofcourse...... you love Willie Nelson I have to admit, I had to look into the Danish map to find out where Hanstholm were in the world.....And you are right......you are near civilisation around that place....It would make more sense in summer, because Bergen already has a summer connection ...fits goooood for seasick trowies !!!!! It is easy to go to Shetland from the west coast as it is in summer, (Trondheim, Molde, Ålesund, Stavanger, and Kristiansand has good connections by air to Bergen all year around....(and so has Oslo.......for the easterns who has none REAL connections to Shetland, ),...........leave out those crazy ones that will take a car and a hellish amount of luggage with them to Shetland........ I winter I would take the plane from Bergen to Aberdeen, and plane , (eventually BOAT to Shetland)...but for people from the continent and south Sweeden and Norway, Esbjerg would be a good option !As for the beer ..........we HAVE cheaper beer in Norway.....,...... payed around £7 for a Stella today......and in the shops it's muuuuuuch cheaper......The worst I have come around is Nkr 94, (£10), for a high altitude beer in Trondheim...... (It was in a rotating resturant in a television tower).... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rasmie Posted August 16, 2010 Report Share Posted August 16, 2010 Hanstholm was a great destination for us. Denmark itself is a nice country to visit and unlike Norway the prices are affordable for eating out as well. There is plenty for Kids to do from Legoland etc.. It is also an excellent place to drive with unrushed a courteous Danes giving you plenty of room. It is an excellent launching point for Germany, Holland, Austria and Italy -- straight down the autobahns and over the Alps..........A passenger ferry from Shetland to Bergen would simply kill off any profitability for an airline as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavi Ugl Posted August 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2010 Same here, I will never use it, but anyting for Kavi Ugl Dagfinn Okay, maybe you could use your "connections" to find me a nice Faroese woman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandhopper Posted August 20, 2010 Report Share Posted August 20, 2010 Scotland's only direct passenger ferry service to mainland Europe [Rosyth-Zeebrugge by DFDS / formerly NorfolkLine] is to be scrapped, it has been announced.BBC tonighthttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-11041554 ... a bit OT but just to highlight the over all ferry situation in the North Sea. As long as DFDS don't accept another company in 'their waters' it makes only little sense to discuss about new ferry routes ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mutton Posted September 4, 2010 Report Share Posted September 4, 2010 I'The Norrona continues to sail right through Yell Sound every week. ? Would quite like to see that. When does she usually go through Yell Sound? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman Posted September 5, 2010 Report Share Posted September 5, 2010 I'The Norrona continues to sail right through Yell Sound every week. ? Would quite like to see that. When does she usually go through Yell Sound? Sorry...late to the discussion but what again was the reason the Norrona stopped coming to Shetland? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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