Storm Johannes stops ferry traffic to Gotland.
For Jan Lundin, 63, a whole weekend is lost.
– It sucks fat, he says.
The article in brief
Storm Johannes stops ferry traffic to and from Gotland during Saturday.
Jan Lundin misses his planned weekend on the island and has to wait until Sunday evening for the next ferry.
Destination Gotland’s app and website had technical problems when many people tried to rebook.
The commuter card does not guarantee a seat for canceled departures.
Travelers are referred to the standby queue in Nynäshamn – but there are few places.
Storm Johannes has taken Sweden – by storm. In Jämtland, parts of the train service are canceled and the Swedish Transport Administration warns of slippery roads.
Even in the Baltic Sea, strong winds are expected to move in. So severe that Destination Gotland is canceling departures to and from Visby on Saturday.
One of those affected is the traveler Jan Lundin, who would have traveled to Gotland on Saturday. The plan was to receive guests and spend the weekend on the island.
Instead, a short text message came from Destination Gotland: the departure to Visby is canceled due to the severe weather conditions.
– I only get a message that the ferry is cancelled. It’s not like they automatically rebook me, he says.
“Not the first time”
When he tries to find out what options are available, he says the app is barely usable because the load is too high.
After contacting customer service, Jan learns that the next departures are already fully booked. The next place offered is on Sunday evening, a quarter past eight.
– Then I’ll arrive around midnight. That means all of Saturday and Sunday are gone.
For Jan Lundin, it has direct consequences. The dinner with the guests on Gotland is canceled and the weekend plans fall through. But he emphasizes that others, who go for work or Gotlanders who are going out to travel, have it even worse.
Jan Lundin has a commuter card with Destination Gotland that costs SEK 32,000 per year.
A card which, according to him, should give priority and flexibility, but which he feels does not help.
– This is not the first time. It has happened before that departures are canceled and you have to hunt for new tickets yourself, he says.
Council: hope for “standby queue”
As an alternative, he is advised to get to Nynäshamn and stand in the standby queue and hope for a place.
– Should I drive five miles, risk that it is full, go home again and then make the same journey once more? Going to Nynäshamn is not that fun.
He emphasizes that he understands that the weather controls the traffic, but is critical of how the situation is handled when problems arise.
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Now all that remains is to wait for Sunday evening’s departure. He summarizes the situation:
– It sucks fat.
Adam Jacobsson, sales and marketing manager at Destination Gotland, writes in an email that they “understand the frustration that arises when our digital channels do not work as travelers expect”.
“Today the load was high on both the app and the web, which affected performance and delayed response times. This is not acceptable from a customer perspective.”
When asked why passengers are not automatically rebooked but need to find new trips themselves, Adam Jacobsson writes that “it differs from case to case”, but that the passengers who were supposed to go on the trip last Saturday simply did not get a seat on the next trip.
Regarding the commuter card, which Jan Lundin holds, the card gives “no special priority or guarantee other than the right to travel on the next available departure subject to availability” in the event of traffic disruptions.
