Hiiu County municipality wants three additional ferries for summer months
Hiiu County municipality has sent an appeal to the Road Administration stating that due to an increase in the number of passengers, a third ferry should be added to the Rohuküla-Heltermaa route for the summer months.
The Road Administration believes the proposal is too expensive, but it could be possible to arrange extra trips with the ferries already working on the route. The expected cost would be around €1.8 million.
Hiiu municipality highlighted that this summer, the number of trips increased by 0.4 percent compared to last year. However, the number of transported cars increased by 8 percent. According to the municipality's data, on 10 percent of the trips, passengers were left behind. In 2019, cars were left behind on 8 percent and in 2018, on 6 percent of the trips.
The Road Administration thinks this year's statistics are exceptional. The increase in the number of transferred vehicles has been continuous but the percentage increase has decreased during these years.
Head of the Public Transport Control Service of the Road Administration, Ahto Pahk told ERR the transportation of cars and passengers is stabilizing and this is also the reason why creating additional costs is not reasonable.
Pahk said that currently, it is planned to add an additional 140 trips to next year's schedule.
Regarding next summer, the deputy mayor of Hiiu County municipality Hergo Tasuja said there is no basis to think the number of domestic tourists will fall.
"Actually, when we're looking at the situation in Europe, in the world, travel restrictions, then I don't doubt at all that in the context of next year, the growth will continue, so the demand to visit Hiiu County is moving in a clear upward trend," Tasuja said.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino