Torghatten Sør Schedules 2026

Torghatten has been in operation since 1878 and is one of the largest ferry groups in Norway, running both car ferries and fast passenger craft along the coast.

Car ferries

Moss–Horten across the Oslofjord — about 35 minutes, one of the busiest car ferry routes in the country. Svelvik–Verket, Norway's shortest crossing at five minutes, operated for the Buskerud authority. Then the northern routes: Svolvær–Skrova in Lofoten, Sørrollnes–Stangnes, Vennesund–Holm and Ølhammeren–Seierstad.

Eight fast craft routes

The hurtigbåt network reaches places no road does: Bindal–Harangsfjord, Brønnøysund–Rørøy, Dyrøy–Øyrekken, Forvik–Vistensteder–Tjøtta, Sandnessjøen–Brønnøysund, Sandnessjøen–Herøysteder–Vega and Skjervøy–Kvænangen–Vorterøy. Several run summer-only variants — the Dyrøy–Sør-Væran service among them.

Live disruption

Traffic notices are published continuously per route. On a network stretching from the Oslofjord to Troms, and on fast craft exposed to open water, cancellations are posted rather than left to the timetable to imply.

The company

A quay-to-quay departure search covers every route. Torghatten publishes its ethical guidelines, supplier code and anti-corruption policy alongside transport conditions — the marks of a group holding public service contracts.

Founded by three men in 1878

The steamship company Torghatten Aktieselskab was founded on 3 January 1878 by Ulrik Qvale of Kvaløy in Brønnøy, Peder Knoph of Terråk in Bindal and P. Tønder of Rørøy. In 1907 a committee pushed through the purchase of a faster vessel — ten knots — ordered from Ørens Verksted in Trondheim for NOK 82,000, a sum the company's own history describes as bordering on reckless optimism. The firm later moved from Kvaløen to Brønnøysund, where its headquarters still sit on the waterfront.

The first bus came in 1930

Torghatten's first land route opened in 1930, a bus from Brønnøysund to Vik in Sømna driven by Jon Nielsen. Sea transport dominated for decades afterwards: road-based routes only became viable once Sør-Helgeland's roads improved, largely after the Second World War. A shipping company that grew into a transport group is why the same name now appears on ferries, fast craft and buses.

How the ferry queue actually works

This is the part most timetables leave out. With a reservation you queue in the innermost lanes, marked on the signs at the entrance. Without a ticket you take the first free lane not marked reservert — usually lanes 1 to 5 — and stay in your vehicle: a queue attendant walks to your car and sells you the ticket there. On foot or by bike, you scan a QR code, enter your passenger details and wait in the marked zone by the ferry until you are called aboard. Payment is by AutoPASS, FerryPay, E24 or, without a toll tag, by card.

If the ferry fills up

Torghatten's instruction is explicit: stay in your vehicle. The attendants redirect the queue so that you keep your place for the following departure rather than losing it to whoever arrives next. On a route running every fifteen minutes that is a short wait; on the northern crossings it is the difference between a delay and a day.

Liability, in numbers

Transport conditions run under the Norwegian Maritime Act of 24 June 1994, chapter 15, in force since 1 January 2017. Liability for death or personal injury caused by a maritime incident is capped at 250,000 SDR per passenger, rising to 400,000 SDR where the carrier is at fault. For money, securities, gold, silver and jewellery the carrier accepts no liability at all unless the items were formally handed over for safekeeping — worth knowing before you leave anything in the car.