Labor mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen gives a clear message that the study of the Northern Norway line can not be baked into anything else.
The Labor Party and the Center Party have promised a so-called concept selection study (KVU) of the Northern Norway line.
But the Norwegian Public Roads Administration has already been given responsibility for a study of transport solutions throughout northern Norway, which is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2023. Part of the assignment is to study specific routes for the Northern Norway line.
On Tuesday, the recent Minister of Transport confirmed that they are now considering whether it holds and whether they can extend that report a little.
The Tromsø rapporteur has the following answers:
– It is too bad, then we get too bad progress, he says to VG.
– I’m afraid it will be a little on one and a little on and a little on the other, so it will be very little clear on the North Norway line. It must be possible to do something in parallel, so that the credibility of the Labor Party and the Center Party is maintained, is the message from Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen.
He receives support from the Labor Party rapporteur in Harstad.
– I share his view. The KVU that is being done now is the previous government’s answer, because they would not vote for a separate KVU for the North Norway line, says Harstad mayor Kari-Anne Opsal to VG.
Background: This triggered the reaction
On Tuesday, Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygård (Labor Party) confirmed that the answer to whether they actually want to build the Northern Norway line will not arrive until 2025, together with a new National Transport Plan (NTP).
The first step now is to find out how to solve the report, as this report on transport in all Northern Norway is already underway.
– What you are considering is to incorporate or extend the mandate there a bit, so you beat two birds with one stone? VG asked the Minister of Transport on Tuesday.
– Yes, or if it is sufficient as it is. We know that processes are underway, so we must make sure that there is a sufficient basis to be able to take a position on the North Norway Line project, replied Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygård.
The mayor of Tromsø says he received many messages after that interviewed.
– Local initiators, as there have been many of these years, have been desperate, says Wilhelmsen.
– You have never promised that you will actually build the course?
– No, but we will work to realize the course. Then we must work for it, then we must not wait for a report to be built into something else. Then we set things up against each other, that there will be no better roads if we are to build a railway, Wilhelmsen believes.
– What is the problem with looking at the course while looking at the rest?
– I want a main focus on railways, so you can look at transport in northern Norway in general, with the road network in northern Troms and Finnmark, says the Tromsø mayor.
He thinks they can build on that the study of the Northern Norway Line from 2019, which by the way he thinks was too bad:
–– I want a concrete document about the Northern Norway line completed in 2023. A report is a basis for discussion, so we can look at route selection and the socio-economic, emphasizes the Tromsø mayor.
Answer: – Just entered the government office
Minister of Transport and Communications Jon-Ivar Nygård insists that they must investigate both alternatives.
– I am clear that we will study the Northern Norway line with the aim of building it, in line with the Hurdal platform. That said, we have just entered the government offices and must see in what way we best ensure a good decision basis, either by our own KVU or as part of the KVU that has already been initiated with possible changes in mandate, writes the Minister of Transport in a e-mail to VG.
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