20
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Newcastle council is looking into restoring a ferry route between the UK city and Bergen in Norway – it last operated in 2008, when it was cancelled due to rising oil prices
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- Title
- Direct ferry from UK to Norway could be restored after 18 years
- Published
- Jan 27 2026
- Word count
- 314 words
Hmmm… probably not as easy to do in a post brexit world though. Normally I’d find an answer in the article but damn is this just a fluff piece.
The UK always had border checks for entering the island even when they were part of the Schengen zone. It's a bit of bureaucracy they're used to implementing.
They were never part of Schengen, hence the border checks.
To my understanding they were part of Schengen, in that UK citizens had the right of free travel within the EU, and also people needed a passport to visit the UK. One of many exceptions to the rules that made the UK a less equal partner.
That's not true. While the UK was still an EU member, as a UK citizen you needed to bring a passport to enter the Schengen Area. Ireland was (and is) in the same situation, and to this day I need to use a passport to enter the Schengen area from a flight from Ireland, just the same as I need to pass passport control when entering Ireland on a flight from a Schengen area country. The UK (nor Ireland) never signed the Schengen Agreement and they both got an opt-out when it became EU law, which Ireland retains.
Ah, thank you for the correction.
Even citizens of third countries have a right to free travel within Schengen Area (not the EU -- there are exceptions in both directions! the other city here is in Norway after all!) Everyone entering Schengen needs a passport to do so and can subsequently move freely within it for however long they're allowed to legally be there (and that part ofc does vary based on your citizenship).
The UK has several active ferry connections to the EU, with destinations to Ireland, France, the Netherlands (of which one shares the same port as the proposed route to Bergen) and even as far as Spain. I've travelled some of these in the last few years, and none seemed to be struggling. Brexit isn't the limiting factor here; it's economic viability. Apparently there simply wasn't enough interest in the connection to Bergen at the time.
And with the boom in campervan ownership over covid that's continuing I'd be surprised if there wasn't now enough interest in the connection. Anecdotally I know quite a few people who are either planning to or want to road trip around the Nordics but aren't as keen on the currently required drive between Rotterdam and Copenhagen.
I would love this. I took
thata similar ferry back in 2005(?), I think, to go from Gothenburg to London without flying. The ferry started in Gothenburg and stoped in Oslo (unless this was some other Ferry line) and I then took a train down from Newcastle IIRC. I had pneumonia unbeknownst to me at the time, but it all worked out fine and I got to do some Erlang/OTP development for the summer. Good times! Slow traveling is just nicer in many respects.