Connecting Bergen to the continent in more ways than one! 

At the moment there are several ferries between Norway and the continent but only one company supplies a connection between Bergen and the continent. 

This company is Fjordline and sails from Bergen to Hirtshals. It takes 18.5 hours and then you are only in the most Northern part of Denmark and many people have to drive many hours to get to other countries. 

Now Holland-Norway Lines has announced a new line from Kristiansand to Eemshaven in the Netherlands which will take 16 hours. However, this line does not cater to costumer from west and north Norway. You have to drive 8 hours from Bergen to Kristiansand and from there the boat will take 16 hours, that means to get from Bergen to the Netherlands in this way will take you 24 hours.

It takes 8 hours to drive from Hirtshals to the Netherlands which means taking Fjordline from Bergen and then driving to the Netherlands will take you a total of 26.5 hours. 

This means that Fjordline and Holland-Norway Lines are interchangeable.  Fjordline maybe even has an advantage since the roads in Denmark and Germany are better than the roads from North and West Norway to Kristiansand. Plus in Norway people have to pay toll and additional local ferries which only add in costs and time. 

This means that the Kristiansand - Eemshaven line does not supply a viable and interesting option to the West coast of Norway and therefore misses out on these costumers. 

In Norway there are 6000 people from the Netherlands, 3500 people from France, 6100 people from Spain. In Bergen there are living 380 Dutch, 545 French and 560 Spanish people. 

That is almost 1500 people just in Bergen that would prefer a ferry from Bergen to the Netherlands. Not only is it easier for them to visit family but also for their families it will be easier to travel to Bergen. If Holland-Norway Lines will introduce a line between Bergen - Eemshaven they will have non-seasonal-dependent costumers year round. 

Bergen is known worldwide as "The gateway to the Fjords". In addition, Bergen has the 1st and 3rd most visited attraction in Norway with Fløibanen attracting more than 1.1 milion visitors and Bryggen attracting almost 600.000 visitors. That means that only these 2 attractions already generate more than 1.7 milion people. Which is half a million more than the Botanical gardens of the Natural history museum and Holmenkollen in Oslo generate together. 

This means that Bergen has both local interest and tourism interest for having a direct line to the Netherlands and bypassing both South Norway and Denmark. 

A line between Bergen - Eemshaven would improve so many lives both for people living in Bergen wanting to travel back home and for people wanting to visit Bergen, the Fjords and/or family.  

Support this petition and make many people very happy by connecting Bergen to the continent in more ways than one!