Transport in the Faroe Islands

From Free net encyclopedia

1 History
2 Railways
3 Highways
4 Ports and harbors
5 Merchant marine
6 Airports
7 See also

History

The general history of the Faroese transportation-system can be summed up into 4 general periods:

In the first period stretching from the feudal era into the beginning of the 20th century transportation was made mainly by a combination of rowboats and walking/carrying - including horse-transport in certain places and upper social classes.
In the second period, starting in the late 19th century the ferry-connections start to emerge. First through private initiatives and in the 20th century increasingly transforming into public transport further supplemented by the emerging automobilism, especially during and between the two world wars. After World War II a large part of the Faroe Islands was reachable through a combination of ferries and automobiles - frequently private buses and taxis.
The third period included a modernization of the ferries, introducing the car-ferries, making it possible to drive between the large centres of the country. Soon it would be possible to drive all the way from the capital of Tórshavn to Vágur and Tvøroyri in the south, to Fuglafjørður and Klaksvík in the north and to the airport at Sørvágur in the west, that was established by the British during the 2nd world war. During this second period the road network was further extended and supplemented by tunnels to distant valleys and firths such as Hvalba, Sandvík and Norðdepil in the 1960s. Thus the third period stretches from the 2nd world war to around 1970.
The fourth period starts a completely new development. In the 1973 the first solid connections between two islands was established between Norðskála on Eysturoy and Nesvík on Streymoy. In 1976 the new tunnel between Norðskála and the rest of Eysturoy was established, and together with the bridge this meant that the two largest islands were suddenly connected into what is now referred to as "Meginlandið" - (the Mainland). In 1975 the "bridge" between Viðoy and Borðoy was established, and in 1986 the "bridge" between Borðoy and Kunoy was established, and in 1992 the capital Tórshavn was granted a 1st class connection to the northern parts of the country, creating the infrastructural prepositions for a new mobile society on the Mainland. The newest developments of the Faroese transportation network are the sub-sea tunnels. In 2002 the tunnel between Streymoy and Vágar - the last is the airport-island - was finished, and in 2006 the tunnel between Eysturoy and Borðoy will be finished. In 2006 more than 85% of the Faroese population will be mutually reachable by automobile.

The main problem of the Faroe Islands is therefore not the internal transportation-network, but rather the external transport-possibilities. There are practically no other travel- or freight-possibilities but ships and airplanes. This means that export of domestically produced commodities is very expensive harming the development of a commodity-based economy.

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Railways

There are no railways on the Faroe Islands, due to the difficult landscape and the relatively short distances. Instead roads have become the main transport artery of the society.

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