BornholmsTrafikken:
The most expensive bidding round in Danish Domestic ferry traffic

	For more than 100 years, BornholmsTrafikken (previously named D/S af 1866) have been sailing from Bornholm to Copenhagen. From next year, the destination will be Køge instead. Also, one of the old ferries is to be sold (“Jens Kofoed”, built in Aalborg in 1978).

BornholmsTrafikken, the state-owned Danish ferry operator which takes care of traffic to and from the Isle of Bornholm, turned out to be the only bidder for the coming five years of traffic service.
The service from Rønne, the main city on the island, to Ystad, Copenhagen and Køge was the last of the Danish route to send in a public bid, based on the EU regulations stipulating that routes in which public aid is given should have a bidding round every fifth year. A number of officials in Denmark have opposed and tried to alter the regulations, but without any luck. So, in the case of BornholmsTrafikken, some DKK 17 million (EUR 2.28 million) has been spend on consultant reports and legal back-up services during the bidding round, making the round the most expensive ever in Denmark. Also, a number of bidders decided not to send in a bid, leaving BornholmsTrafikken as the only one.

Earlier, Gotlandsbolaget AB, Mols-Linien and Scandlines had been named as interested parties for the traffic. BornholmsTrafikken has still not been appointed the official carrier for the coming five years, but is expected to be in the very near future.

Newbuildings
Based on the likelihood of getting the contract, BornholmsTrafikken has signed contracts with De Merwede Shipyard of Hardinxveld-Gornichem for the building and delivery of two new ro-pax ferries for traffic in the coming years.

– We have been looking at a number of second-hand ships with the intention of rebuilding them to ro-pax design, says Mads Kofoed, CEO of BornholmsTrafikken. But none were very attractive and young enough for a big rebuilding and huge investment of money, he adds. So, really the only solution was to build new ships dedicated to our service. The investment will be around DKK 600 million (EUR 80.5 million) for the two ferries. One is to be built at De Merwede’s facility at Hardinxveld and the other one is subcontracted to Scheepswerv Volharding at Eemshaven. Both vessels are to be delivered in April of 2005, in good time for the start of the new contract on May 1, 2005.

Ro-pax
The new ro-pax will run from Rønne to Køge and vice versa, and then follow the test-sailing which has been running for more than a year now. This is intended to divert the lorry and trailer traffic from the central port of Copenhagen to Køge some 45 km south of Copenhagen – with much easier access to the motorway system and no morning urban traffic jams, which are often the case when the morning ferry from Bornholm arrives at Copenhagen at 6.30 a.m. and trailers have to be hauled away.

In its new “life”, BornholmsTrafikken will continue to guide passengers to the HSC ferry Villum Clausen on the Rønne–Ystad run (one hour) and by dedicated train service to Copenhagen Central, or by their own car via the Öresund Bridge to the Isle of Sjaelland. This means cutting down on the old passenger service direct to Copenhagen city. It also means selling off one of the two passenger ferries Jens Kofoed and Povl Anker. Both were built in 1979, but have been upgraded to the latest Solas requirements. Jens Kofoed will be sold off, while Povl Anker will be a reserve ferry and provide extra capacity in summer.

The new vessels will have passenger compartments and even cabins for the overnight sailings. The capacity will be 400 passengers, 100 of which can have bunks. The capacity can be increased to 700 people if required. The vessels will have some 1,200 lane metres on the decks for trailers and lorries. They will be upgraded versions of the Ben-My-Chree type, which was built by the closed down shipyard Van Giessen de Noord (now taken over by De Merwede group). The propulsion plant will comprise two MaK engines for a service speed of 18.5 knots with 3,000 tons deadweight.

Changes
There will be many other changes from May 1, 2005. The ferry company will have a new logo and a new colour design on the ferries and terminals, tickets and so on. The present design is almost 20 years old and due for renewal. Most interesting for the population on the Isle of Bornholm is probably that the Danish Ministry of Transport, which is also the only shareholder in BornholmsTrafikken, has stated that the transport price from Bornholm to the mainland and Sweden would be reduced by about six per cent, even though there would be a higher sum of aid money. It would thus raise the injection of public money above the more than DKK 70 million (EUR 9.40 million) of present government aid to the ferry company. Also, the HSC ferry Villum Clausen, presently leased from Nordbanken Finans of Stockholm, will be rebuilt with hoistable decks on the car deck, thus increasing the capacity of the Rønne–Ystad run and allowing more single trips on the run.

There will be 200 more single trips per year. Furthermore, BornholmsTrafikken will try to find some more work for the new ro-pax – which is lying idle 16 hours per day – in Rønne or in Køge. They will sail at 11 p.m. from each port and arrive in the early hours of the next morning.

From Rønne, the plan is to re-launch the service to Sassnitz/Mukran in Germany, a service which has been tried already with little success in the years following the reunification of Germany, but with increased traffic in the Mukran area in general. The Rønne ferry can do a round trip to Mukran during the hours it would otherwise be lying idle.

Over the last couple of years, BornholmsTrafikken have been optimising the day-to-day running in a move to reduce staff and cut costs. In that period, half of the staff has been cut, and there are now 300 employees – even though there has been a 35 per cent increase in traffic. Manning will be reduced even more when the new ro-pax vessels with only 100 beds as opposed to 490 beds on the two old ferries are delivered.

//Bent Mikkelsen

Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49

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