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Comment by zerof1l | Hacker News Reader

I fail to understand why Faroe Islands need such tunnel in the first place considering the costs. There's only about 52,000 inhabitants on whole archipelago. Also it doesn't seem like they have a bunch of factories and much of production going on.

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Investing heavily in the infrastructure of the Faroe Islands and Greenland gives Denmark leverage whenever those territories start talking about independence. Furthermore, it's increasing the standard of living for the people who live there, and having infrastructure in place makes it easier to attract businesses in the future.

There's also a cool-factor.

So basically Copenhagen's way of keeping Faroe Islanders on Faroe Islands. Do they get along that badly?

And it's not money given to Faroe Islands, it's money given to companies much closer to home for doing cool digs beneath Faroe Islands. I believe that Denmark understands this difference very well.

There were plenty of people from the Faroe Islands and Greenland when I lived in Copenhagen a few years ago, and I never got the impression that Danes are hostile towards any of them.

The Kingdom of Denmark is trying to keep itself in one piece though, and ensuring that people in the Faroe Islands and Greenland are happy being a part of the Kingdom is probably a good way of doing just that.

Otherwise, they might just say yes when some US president attempts to buy them.

I don't follow local politics much, so I'm not 100% sure about the following. But my impression is that it's financed by loans, paid for with tolls for using the tunnels. And I think the project is being dug by Norwegians.

Denmark does pay a yearly subsidy to the Faroe Islands of ~105M USD to help with general upkeep, but that's not earmarked.

Oh, that shines a very different light on it, thanks!

NCC who dig it are Swedish, but this may be done by a Norwegian subsidiary

You're right, found this on NCC's Norwegian website:

https://www.ncc.no/vare-prosjekter/undersjoiske-tunneler-far...

In Norway we are currently building bridges and tunnels to a few islands with less than 3000 inhabitants for more than double the price of this Faroe project.

:-)

Is it common for rich Norwegians to legally move to Sweden and use almost Swiss level ISK to escape the 25% capital gains and ~1.4% wealth tax?

For posterity: I misremembered how much wealth is disincentivized in Norway - it’s “only” 0.85% wealth tax and 24% capital gains. This explains why there are way fewer who become millionaires in Norway than in Switzerland, even if Norway is so rich in resources while CH is not

No.

They have tunnels between almost all the islands, being able to drive between the islands rather than taking a boat on dangerous seas makes a lot of sense

The article mentions a budget of a billion DKK. This would be a bit over 100M $. So, expensive but not that outrageous.

Populations on these islands and their economies are small precisely because it is hard to get there and requires operating ferries (which costs money as well). Solve that problem and you might expect to see an effect on the local economy (more tourism, cheaper to move goods around, commutes to the mainland, etc.). If you then consider that they'll be benefiting from this for decades/centuries, it suddenly becomes a wise investment.

For the size of those tunnels that's pretty cheap I'd say. Both are about 11km and the most expensive one is 142 million usd. Even if you were to double the cost it's still fairly cheap. I wonder if it's paid for by the people living there or if it's paid for by the Danish mainland? Probably both. This will provide a good boost to their economy in the longer run.

It's paid for by the value of having a distant outpost in the middle of The Atlantic, and the EEZ that comes with it.

It's financed by loans, paid for by tolls:

https://www.tunnil.fo/english/pay-toll-charge/

I'd say it's downright cheap.

They have tunnels through a lot of the islands as well - mostly single track with passing places (looked pretty terrifying when I was there a couple of decades ago, though I was never the one driving).

A useful reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tunnels_of_the_Faroe_I...

Wow, that's impressive tunnelling. On par with the swiss I'd say. Any plans for the big one (Suduroy - Shetlands ~250Km)?

You used to have to take a large detour to get to Klaksvík - which is the second largest town - from Tórshavn (the capital). By taking the tunnel, you shave off 27 minutes.

Travel time to almost all of the north-eastern islands, and the towns on these islands, has been cut down by half an hour.

It is also safer. They also argue that it is cheaper, but I don't know about that.

Ignoring industry, that's just quality of life.

But consider a car accident; the ambulances have to get there in a hurry. Minutes might save lives here.

> consider a car accident; the ambulances have to get there in a hurry. Minutes might save lives here.

If that's the reason, why not build that tunnel in a big city, where there are a lot more accidents and lives to be saved ?

> Faroe Islands

> Big city

Choose one. Though being serious, it takes about five minutes to drive to the hospital from any point in the capital if you have sirens going.

Exactly, so again, if that's the reason, why build that tunnel at all in the islands with low population rather than in a big city where there are a lot more lives to be saved ?

I'm sorry, do you mean build the tunnel in an entirely different country?

> why not build that tunnel in a big city

The Faroe Islands are _tiny_. Land area of about 1,399km²

Just a little bit larger than New York City, which is 1212km².

Long Island, NY more than twice as big.

I visited the Faroes 4 years ago. Locals were proud of their cold storage industry. Fish from North Atlantic trawlers flash frozen many hours earlier than delivery to the continent. Lucrative.

I imagine a cross island road network would help this industry, opening new avenues for trawler arrival.

It was a wonderful place to visit.

When the financing for much of this was agreed upon it was under the previous danish prime minister Lars Løkke, who's wife is Faroese. The second he stopped they founded a company there which has close ties to some travel company among other things. Besides this the family has general connections to the economy there naturally.

> Also it doesn't seem like they have a bunch of factories and much of production going on.

What’s this got to do with anything?

Economy is all that some people think about, never standards of living or politics.

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