Debate, Opinions | Hordfast: A crossroads in the history of Western Norway

Reader’s letter This is a debate entry, written by an external contributor. The post expresses the writer’s views.

With Hordfast put on hold, Bergen, with its flamboyant signals, has put an end not only to its nostalgic perception of actually being Norway’s capital, but also to its far more realistic perception of being Western Norway’s capital.

From now on, all Bergens as well as all Westerners will revolve around the ever-rising sun in the east, the country’s capital from 1814, Oslo.

A Westland divided forever.

The people of Bergen find their way to the indolent cabin life on the mountain, and if we add good will, the road goes even further east, but where it will primarily end in the dance around the golden calf, the Norwegian state’s unimaginable riches that are distributed as gentle gifts to the best able to present their case to the national authorities.

Instead, Bergen should look west as in all previous centuries.

Same with Stavanger. Rogfast is coming, and there will be more money to go over Haukeli. Then you must be satisfied, right? As long as you get to Oslo quickly and avoid competition from Bergen? Someone in Stavanger seems to want to think this.

At the same time, there should be no doubt that the new motorway between Os and Bergen will be the country’s leading cul-de-sac without a Hordfast, as history professor Morten Hammerborg has pointedly put it, and in this lies the fact that Bergen will also be no competitor for the residents of the bishop’s city. The municipalities in Sunnhordland will start looking south towards Haugesund and Stavanger rather than towards Bergen.

So let it therefore be said; not so bad that it can’t be good for anything!

Right in the middle between Stord and Stavanger lies the herring town! The city in the middle, as the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions once formulated it, albeit with a different starting point than what we are now facing.

That Western Norway as an idea now stands as the loser after the government’s submission to NTP, no one should be in any doubt!

Of all Westerners, the people of Bergen have the most to lose from this!