Georg A. Steintveit (39) was quality manager at the ferry company Bastø Fosen when the ferry scandal in Brevik was brewing. He was just a spectator as the owners Porsgrunn municipality and the county council ordered a new electric ferry for 80 million, but lacked a berth.
In an incredible concoction, the municipality and politicians ended up in ever deeper water, in the most expensive archipelago adventure in recent local history. A new ferry and new quay facilities have come in at close to a quarter of a billion kroner.
– A difficult birth, but now we look ahead, says Steintveit.
Greater capacity
He was hired as the new general manager of Brevik ferry company IKS in March. By then, the new electric railway had been in operation for half a year.
PD joined Steintveit and the crew on the new “Sandøy” to the fjord on Monday morning at 08.10. Most of the passengers were children going to the Montessori school on Sandøya. Ted Jørgensen from Langesund Rør sat in a craftsman’s car.
– We are going to Sandøya. We have installed a bathroom and will finish it, said Jørgensen.
He is happy that the new ferry has a larger capacity than the old one. The chance is greater to drop off and wait for the next departure.
Synnøve Kolstad from the home service in Porsgrunn municipality was going to Sandøya on a permanent assignment.
– I’m out here every day, Synnøve said.
Georg A. Steintveit is from Nordfjordeid. He has a sea captain’s certificate and has driven many ferries in Western Norway. In Bastø Fosen, he was quality manager with an office in Horten. He lives in Hovenga with his wife and four children.
What kind of comments did you get when it became known that you were going to take over in Brevik?
– Well, comments, it was probably more like “it sounds exciting”.
Steintveit will not go into any sort of explanation of what went wrong in the ferry case, beyond that “from the outside it appears to be an obvious failure of communication”.
– The people who work in the company and my predecessor Borgar Slørdal have done a good job and got a modern, environmentally friendly and great ferry in place. I experience coming to duka deck in Brevik in terms of material and crew. We look forward, says Steintveit.
For permanent residents, the ferry has become free. More people bring the car.
– A lot overseas
On Tuesday this week, he will meet the board of representatives of the ferry company for the first time. In relation to the private shipping company Bastø Fosen, there is a lot of new things to get used to. Steintveit says there is a lot of “overseas”.
Porsgrunn municipality and Telemark county municipality each own a half share, and politicians sit at the helm. In general, elected representatives hesitate to retain positions and remunerations in companies within various areas of society, despite lacking the professional qualifications for governance, budgeting and employer responsibility.
Steintveit is general manager of both Brevik ferry company IKS and Kragerø fjord boat company IKS. He says he finds the boards to be professional. Formally, he is leased to Brevik ferry company IKS. According to the plan, the administration in the county council will come up with a case in May about the new organization of the ferry companies. They will be merged, but it is not decided how.
One move is to put operation of the businesses out to tender, another is to further develop it as a separate county municipal department. Several options may come to the table.
The new elferga in Brevik has been the subject of haha reports that it must run on diesel. The captain on board, Morten Lindtein, says there have been silly things about the ferry. He has been a captain on short-haul ferries since 2001, and says there is no short version of the difference between the old and new ferries. It’s like two worlds.
– Good working environment
– I cannot brag enough about the new ferry. Most electric ferries have a backup diesel engine. This ferry almost never runs on diesel, says Lindtein.
The captain says the working environment on board is good. That’s why he’s been there so long. About the new quays, he says “damn, it’s a good thing”.
The investment in ferry operations and infrastructure in the archipelago was off course, but involves a formidable standard raising for employees and passengers.
Steintveit believes the ferry runs on 99.9 percent electricity.
– There is always something wrong with new buildings. Here we have had two minor outages of a few hours in total. There is almost zero in this industry. We have been lucky, say Steintveit and Lindtein.
Excited
He is excited about how the summer will develop with capacity, because the number of cars on the ferry has increased. Permanent residents travel for free, visitors and tourists must pay, the same has been introduced in Kragerø, and there the number of cars on the ferry has increased sharply in the winter months. This is the consequence of the free ferry. So far, Steintveit does not have good experience in Brevik.
For the ferry company in Brevik as a whole, the 2023 budget shows a deficit of 2.4 million.
– We have no experience from the summer season with the new ferry. It was commissioned in September 2023. I am very excited, says the general manager.
Three of the issues at the supervisory board meeting on Tuesday are the constitution of a new supervisory board, amendment of the company agreement and election of a new board.
The employees currently do not know which employer they will have from 2025, and what the new organization will mean.
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