Wagenborg Passagiersdiensten Schedules 2026

Wagenborg Passagiersdiensten has been carrying people to the Dutch Wadden islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog for more than a hundred years. The thing to understand before reading the timetable is that it runs two different speeds on the same water, and the gap between them is more than double.

Fifty minutes or twenty, and you choose when you book

To Ameland the car ferries Sier and Oerd take about 50 minutes from Holwerd; the fast service Fostaborg does it in roughly 20. To Schiermonnikoog the ferries Rottum and Monnik take 45 minutes from Lauwersoog, against about 20 on the fast boat Esonborg. Our schedule data carries both figures on the same route — Holwerd to Ameland shows departures at 25 and at 50 minutes — and that is not an error. It is two services sharing one crossing.

Schiermonnikoog does not want your car

The island is autoluw: car access is deliberately restricted, and the ferry is built around that. Lauwersoog to Schiermonnikoog carries 11 departures in our data and the return 10. Ameland, by contrast, takes vehicles normally and runs 20 departures each way. Two neighbouring islands, two entirely different policies, one operator.

A ship named after a village the sea took

The m.s. Sier was launched on 1 October 1994 at Scheepswerf Bijlsma and christened by Annemarie Jorritsma, then the Dutch Minister of Transport and Water Management. Sier was a fishing hamlet on the western tip of Ameland, west of Hollum, that disappeared into the waves around 1730. The m.s. Oerd, working the Holwerd route since 2003, is named after a village at the island’s eastern end, where the nature reserve now is. Both are driven by schottel pump jets on four Caterpillar 3508 diesels.

The Rottum used to be the Sier

The current m.s. Rottum was built in 1985 at Scheepswerf Hoogezand and entered service on 9 May 1985 under the name Sier. It worked Ameland–Holwerd for ten years. When the company ordered a new ship and gave it the same name, the old one was renamed Rottum and moved across to Lauwersoog–Schiermonnikoog, where it was rebuilt in 2011 and 2012. If a vessel name seems to have two histories on this coast, that is why.

Booking, and why it matters on this crossing

Reservations, changes and cancellations are handled per island rather than centrally, with separate tariff schedules for Ameland and Schiermonnikoog. Disruption notices go out over WhatsApp, and the company publishes live vessel positions. On tidal Wadden crossings where a sailing can be delayed by water level rather than weather, being able to see where the boat actually is has practical value.