It’s certainly no secret that I’m partial to a bit of transport talk. But whilst you can often find me over here waxing lyrical about London’s nifty network of tubes, trains, bikes, and buses; today I’m pushing the boat out, because I come bearing some ferry good news.
The prospect of a shiny new ferry service is officially on the horizon, and it would directly link the Port of Aberdeen with the idyllic Icelandic town of Seyðisfjörður. The new proposals in the pipeline have reportedly piqued the interest of an ‘unnamed ferry operator’, but discussions are currently in the early stages – so I wouldn’t start packing your suitcase just yet.
The new route could ferry both freight and passengers from the ‘Granite City’ to the east coast of Iceland. Bob Sanguinetti, the Port of Aberdeen’s chief executive, said that ‘a regular service between Aberdeen and Iceland would certainly be of interest to the port’. And there have allegedly been meetings between the Scottish port and Dagmar Ýr Stefánsdóttir (the Mayor of Múlaþing).
It’s currently unclear as to whether or not there would actually be enough of a demand freight-wise to make the potential route commercially viable. Passenger numbers alone are unlikely to warrant a regularly scheduled service, so it would be fairly dependent on freight traffic. Border and custom arrangements would also need to be agreed as Iceland is part of the Schengen Area (a network of open-border countries), while the UK is not.
Seyðisfjörður is one of the most idyllic towns in the Fjords, famous for its wooden architecture, rainbow-painted street, and picture-perfect powder blue church. If the plans go ahead, this route would mark Scotland’s first direct international passenger ferry service, which is pretty darn exciting, if you ask me.
