VISBY/STOCKHOLM. Thousands are stranded on Gotland due to a technical ferry breakdown.
Disappointed travelers are now forced to spend the night in their cars and in the ferry terminal in Visby – many without any information.
– It’s a disaster, says traveler Fredrik Graff.
Several Gotland ferries have been canceled due to a technical fault with M/S Drotten.
Departures from Nynäshamn, Oskarhamn and Visby are affected – and thousands of travelers are affected.
Many of the stranded travelers are now forced to spend the night in the ferry terminal in Visby, while others have chosen to sit in car queues for several hours in the hope of getting a place on the last boat of the evening.
One of them is the traveler Fredrik Wäppling.
– I went here to the terminal to see if I could rebook my ticket. But it’s a damn long waiting time and there’s been a lot of noise, he says.
“No one answers – phone queue full”
Several also testify that information from the ferry company Destination Gotland is scarce.
Among them is Karlstad resident Alva Andersson who, together with his group of friends, is also stranded in the ferry terminal in Visby.
– We received an SMS this evening about the technical problem and with a number to call to rebook. We have called the number like 78 times, but no one answers, she says and continues:
– The answer you get is that the telephone queue is full.
Now the group of friends don’t know how or when they can get home again.
– We don’t know if we will get home tonight or on Monday. It’s absolutely crazy that they have a system that doesn’t work in situations like this, she says.
Where are you going to sleep if you don’t come on the last ferry?
– We don’t know that either. Maybe in the car.
First available ferry home – on Tuesday
According to Destination Gotland, another 1,500 travelers are expected to be affected on Saturday.
Several of them have been able to rebook their tickets, says the ferry company. But traveler Fredrik Graff is not one of the lucky ones.
Fredrik Graff and company had packed their holiday bags to leave the island on the Saturday morning ferry. But since he received the information about his canceled departure, he has been frantically trying to get hold of a new ticket.
– We were having dinner this evening when I received a text that the ferry had been cancelled. We have tried to find a new route home but everything is fully booked, the next available ferry leaves on Tuesday.
He continues:
– We are stranded. It is a disaster because several of us start work on Monday. Now we have to desperately call our employers to explain the situation. It’s not good.
Destination Gotland: Right to compensation
Due to the ticket chaos, Destination Gotland has chosen to keep the terminals in the quay open all night.
– So that people have somewhere to sleep. We try to get as many as possible on the boats first. There are a lot of cars in the queue that are on stand-by, says terminal manager Kicki Wikberg.
Marcus Risberg, CEO of Destination Gotland, also writes in a comment to Aftonbladet that they are working to solve the problem.
“We are working intensively to make full use of available capacity in order to produce extra capacity as soon as possible”.
Furthermore, he writes that travelers who are affected are entitled to compensation.
“As a passenger, you have rights to compensation according to the EU regulation in the event of delays or canceled tours, which we naturally follow. We have a humble understanding of how this affects affected travelers”.