Ferries from Våge ferjekai

Våge is the Tysnes end of a 35-minute crossing to Halhjem, with 18 sailings — and Halhjem is where the Hordfast project proposes to put a bridge. What happens to this quay depends on a decision that has not been made.

The crossing

Våge to Halhjem takes about 35 minutes across the Bjørnafjord, south of Bergen, with 18 sailings in our timetable and 37 across the quay in both directions. Operated by Skyss.

⚠ Eighteen sailings across 35 minutes

That is roughly one every forty-five minutes across the day, on a crossing long enough that the vessel is committed for well over an hour per round trip. Missing one is not the ten-minute inconvenience the shorter Bjørnafjord crossings offer.

Tysnes is a holiday-house island, so the peak is a Friday afternoon out and a Sunday evening back — a very different shape from a commuter crossing, and one that catches people who assume the busy hours are the working ones.

Tysnes

A large island in the Bjørnafjord with a scattered population, no bridge to the mainland, and ferry links in several directions. Våge is one of its main quays.

The island is quiet and hilly, and heavily used for cabins — which is why summer traffic here is holiday traffic rather than working traffic.

Hordfast

Norway's western trunk road, the E39, runs roughly 1,100 km from Kristiansand to Trondheim and crosses seven fjords by ferry. The proposed Bjørnafjord crossing would carry it on a floating bridge some 5 km long — nothing of that scale has been built anywhere — and take the Halhjem–Sandvikvåg ferry off the main route.

Whether and how the Tysnes links would be affected has been part of the argument. Nothing has been built.

Practicalities

Vehicles queue and board in arrival order with no advance booking; the toll is read off the number plate. Walking on is free.