Bus drivers are refused to drive tourists to Lodalen for the second summer in a row – news Vestland

For the second summer in a row, the tourist buses are refused access to one of the most visited tourist attractions in Western Norway. Thousands of visitors visit Lodalen in Nordfjord every year. Many of them looking for the perfect Instagram picture. Last year, the main security agency in Tide refused its drivers to drive the road. Several large bus companies are now following suit. The county road is simply dangerous, according to the bus drivers. It is too narrow and dangerous. In several places, the drivers fear ending up in the Lovatnet. – A number of improvements have been made, but we are not satisfied until they have made proper edge protections in the most critical places, says chief security officer Pål Stange in Tide. It is motifs like this that tourists come to Lodalen and Lovatnet to experience. Photo: Kjersti Kvamme Tourism despairs Without the tourist buses, it will be difficult for those who make a living from tourism in Lodalen. – Those who run businesses deep in the valley will not tolerate many such seasons before things can go wrong, says tourism director Marita Lindvik at Visit Nordfjord. Inst in Lodalen is the tourist cafe Kjenndalstova. Bus guests from the many cruise ships that come to Nordfjord every year are an important source of income for owner Ingvill Tronrud. – Now everything is turned upside down, cruise tourists and others no longer come to us because they have the wrong bus company, says Tronrud. Because neither Tide, Vy nor Borealis drive further into Lodalen to Kjenndalstova. Tronrud has therefore been forced to take action on his own. – Since there was such a mess last year, we decided to take care of the tourists themselves. We receive them when they disembark in Olden and transport them by boat on Lovatnet. Inside Kjenndalen we have a bus that takes them all the way to the glacier. Ingvill Tronrud and Jan Ove Hogrenning run Kjenndalstova inst in Lodalen in Stryn municipality. They are completely dependent on the income from tourists. Photo: Thomas Thaule / Fjordingen Didn’t manage to fix the road Before the season this year, a number of measures have been taken to improve traffic safety, but there is still a lot to be done, admits Stryn – mayor Per Kjøllesdal (Sp). Per Kjøllesdal (Sp) is mayor of Stryn. Photo: Wibeke Bruland / news – During the winter, a number of new meeting places have been created, and some forest has also been cut down to improve visibility. So the traffic situation is better than it was, says Kjøllesdal. But the county council did not manage to do enough before the tourist season started. – But if the road is to be completely good, quite a lot more needs to be done. Some are quite extensive. There is more in the works, but this is what we got so far. Difficult and complex issue In Visit Nordfjord, the director of tourism shares the despair of those who try to run a business in the valley, but also understands the drivers who do not want to drive the narrow and unclear road. Marita Lindvik is director of tourism at Visit Nordfjord. Photo: ELISE KVIEN / news – A number of improvements have been made, but at the same time there are also a number of limitations in the valley itself for what can be done, says Lindvik. She is nevertheless concerned that the drivers must have safe working conditions, at the same time that those who run businesses deep in the valley are given predictable frameworks to operate under. – They don’t have that as things stand today. On the positive side, it is good that they are now using the water more to transport tourists. It is something that I think one must do more of in the future, also out of consideration for sustainability. Take no chances Vestland County Council is responsible for the tourist route. Department director for infrastructure, Dina Lefdal, says they plan to further secure the road with railings and improve visibility. She still believes that today’s road is safe. – This is a road that does not have the world’s best standards, but as long as we keep it open we consider it safe enough. For Pål Stange in Tide, the safety of the narrow roadsides is the only thing he can accept. The chief safety officer fears serious accidents if something is not done. Stange refers to the bus that drove off the road in the neighboring valley, Oldedalen, earlier in May. Here there was a long-standing danger that the bus would overturn completely. – These are exactly the kind of episodes we don’t want with our buses. On 6 May, a bus ran off the road in Oldedalen. Photo: Dag Indrebø



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