Boreal Transport Nord

Boreal Transport Nord AS

A Volvo 9700S bruck in the previous FFR livery.
Formerly called	Finnmark Fylkesrederi og Ruteselskap AS (-2007) Veolia Transport Nord AS (2007-2011)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Public transport
Founded	1916
Headquarters	Hammerfest, Norway
Number of locations	11
Area served	Northern Norway
Parent	Boreal Transport
Subsidiaries	TIRB (71.3%)
Website	www.boreal.no
Footnotes / references

Boreal Transport Nord (formerly Veolia Transport Nord and Finnmark Fylkesrederi og Ruteselskap) is a subsidiary of Boreal Transport, operating road ferries, fast ferries and buses at six locations in Finnmark, four in Nordland and one in Troms. The headquarters are located in Hammerfest, Finnmark. In addition they operate four Hertz car rental offices in Finnmark and petrol distributor Minol in Nordland.

History

The company was established as Finnmark Fylkesrederi in 1916 as a shipping company, and in 1937 also started bus transport, later adopting the name Finnmark Fylkesrederi og Ruteselskap AS (FFR). FFR have transported tourists to North Cape since the road there was opened in 1956.

The Finnmark County Municipality, owner of FFR, decided in 1994 to make parts of the operation of public transport in the county subject to public service obligation (PSO) contracts, and the first area, concerning bus routes in East-Finnmark with a total of around 800,000 vehicle kilometres per year, was won by FFR in 1996. The contract lasted until 30 April 2002, and the area was then incorporated in FFR's general contract. The second area, concerning routes in central Finnmark was won by Nordtrafikk Buss in 1999. The second round for this area, concerning around 850,000 vehicle kilometres per year and 24 buses, was won back by FFR in 2004, with contract period from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2009. In the third round in 2009, with contract period from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2015, the company secured the contract again, beating Nordlandsbuss and Norgesbuss. In 2001, the third area, concerning bus routes in the municipalities of Måsøy and Nordkapp was also won by FFR. This contract was also later incorporated into FFR's general contract. The general contract was renegotiated in 2003, lasting until the end of 2007, and was then extended with eight years, ending on 31 December 2015.

On 1 April 2003, Finnmark County Municipality sold FFR to Veolia Transport Norge. The operations continued as usual under the FFR name for several years, but in spring of 2007, Veolia did a major restructure of their operations in Norway. First off, ferry and bus operator Helgelandske from Sandnessjøen was merged into FFR and the company name was changed to Veolia Transport Nord AS. All ferry and bus operations that had been acquired from Nordtrafikk half a year earlier were moved into the company, except for a minor bus operation Nordtrafikk had in Eastern Norway.

When Veolia sold their Norwegian operations in May 2011, renaming the Norwegian operations to Boreal Transport, the company was accordingly renamed Boreal Transport Nord AS, its current name.

In July 2014, Boreal Transport Nord acquired Hurtigruten's 71.3%-share in TIRB, becoming the major owner. TIRB has the bus operating subsidiaries Cominor (100%) and Senja Rutebil (49.3%)

In 2014, a PSO tender for all bus operations in Finnmark (except some minibus routes) was offered, and in 2015 it was won by Boreal Transport Nord as the only bidder. The contract lasts for seven years, starting from 1 January 2016, with an optional extension of up to three years. The buses will be delivered by Scania and Mercedes-Benz.