Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.07.2017, Side 10

You’ve been hearing about it for years
now. You probably thought it was nev-
er going to happen. But now it looks as
though the legendary train between Ke-
flavík International Airport and down-
town Reykjavík will soon be a reality.
Runolfur Ágústsson has been work-
ing tirelessly to get this project off the
ground for the past four and a
half years now. The train,
dubbed Lava Express,
could be accepting
its first passengers
as soon as 2025.
“In the be-
ginning, people
thought we were
crazy,” he says.
“They thought
this was a very
unrealistic idea.
They didn't think
t here wou ld b e
enough passengers,
and in the beginning,
the profitability of the pro-
ject was OK, but nothing great.
However, over the last four years, as you
know, the development has been quite
rapid in the number of tourists. We as-
sume about 75% to 80% of the revenue
will come from people using the train to
connect Reykjavík and the airport. So of
course, the project is more profitable now
than it was four years ago. We'll be up-
dating our business plan in August, for
the third or fourth time. Basically, as the
project looks now, it's profitable for the
investors and for society as a whole. New
ideas take time to sink in. Sometimes
the public has to think about it a bit.”
On the right track
This is not some kind of John Henry sce-
nario, where all one needs to do is simply
plough through the lava, lay down some
tracks, and you’re ready
to go. In a country with
no trains, getting the
first modern version of
a train built here means
going through some
considerable
red tape.

“We've been try-
ing to get the
approval of the
municipalities as
well, and we are
gaining that now,”
Runolfur explains.
“ The trai n goes
through seven munic-
ipalities. We've already
got an agreement with five
of them; Hafnarfjörður and Kó-
pavogur remain, but they will hold a
meeting in their town councils in July
and August. So we hope that by the end of
the summer, we have an agreement with
all the municipalities about the project,
and then we can start the planning and
design phase. Following that we start
the environmental assessment. I hope
that all the pieces are falling together
now, so we can start the next phase in
the autumn, which will take about three
years. Then we can start construction,
which should take four to five years. So
it's a huge project and takes a lot of time.”
But what if the tourism
industry declines?
With so much riding on tourism num-
bers, one might be forgiven for raising
an eyebrow at the premise of the Lava
Express. What if the tourism crash,
which many are predicting is on the
horizon, gets here before the train is
finished? Not to worry, Runolfur says.
“The train will still have other appli-
cations,” he says. “It won't just connect
the airport and the city centre. It's con-
necting the people who live in Suðurnes
with the people who live in Reykjavík,
bringing those two societies together.
It's quite popular now to live in the mu-
nicipalities around the airport and work
in Reykjavík. The train will decrease the
travel time from around an hour down
to twenty minutes. Actually, our esti-
mates for the number of tourists in the
coming years are quite conservative.”
No Ring Road train
anytime soon, though
All that being the case, it is still highly
unlikely that the train line will expand
beyond the Keflavík-Reykjavík cor-
ridor. While it will connect with the
proposed City Line light rail system,
you won’t be taking a leisurely train
ride around the country any time soon.
“Basically, this is the
only kind of possible line
in the country that can
fulfill this,” Runolfur ex-
plains. “Like, if you think
of a train between, say,
Reykjavík and Borgarnes,
the number of passengers
wouldn't be enough. Right
now, we're receiving a bit
less than 2 million people.
There are about 10,000
people now working at the
airport, many of whom have to go there
daily. With the current number of tour-
ists and the current situation, and with
a conservative estimate of growth, we
have the number of passengers we need
right now. So we don't actually need a
boom in tourists to go on for our project.”
All this said, we will still have to wait
until 2025 until the train opens its doors
for the first time, if everything goes well.
Until then, we still have the Flybus—a
decidedly less romantic way to travel.
ANALYSIS
Words:
Paul Fontaine
Photo:
Runolfur
Ágústsson
Share this
gpv.is/exp12
The world’s greatest chess player
today might be Norwegian Magnus
Carlsen, but Iceland has had a spe-
cial relationship with chess ever
since the Spassky-Fischer World
Chess Championship was held in
Reykjavík in 1972. This was again
exemplified when Bobby Fischer
was given asylum in Iceland in
2005 despite condemnation from
the US (you can visit the Bobby Fis-
cher Center in Selfoss if you like).

Iceland’s participation in the
1936 Olympics, its first as an in-
dependent country, was largely
seen as an embarrassment de-
spite sending a delegation of 50
athletes. This was not because the
host was Hitler, but because the
country did not come close to win-
ning anything (although Sigurður
Sigurðsson did set an Icelandic
record in the triple jump, the previ-
ous record being held by himself).
More hope was invested in the
Chess Olympics held in Munich that
same year, but even here, Iceland
only placed 19th. Out of 21 coun-
tries. Yes, we did beat France, but
so did everyone in those days.
The only consolation was that
the most beautiful game of the
match was considered the one
between the Estonian Paul Keres
and our own Eggert Gilfers. The lo-
cal papers did not report who won,
but a little research shows this to
have been Estonia. But at least we
lost beautifully.
Valur Gunnarsson
10 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2017
BLAST FROM THE PAST
“The train will
decrease the
travel time from
around an hour
down to twenty
minutes.”
All Aboard
The Lava
Express!
That train we’ve been hearing about for
years will soon be here at last
Losing
Beautifully
at Chess
"Friend of Iceland" Bobby Fischer
“Vúp-Vúp!”, the sound a train makes in Icelandic
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