Transport / ‘Urgent’ need for extra vessel in ferry fleet
COUNCIL officials have been urged to make sure a new ferry project “moves forward as quickly as possible”.
Shetland Islands Council (SIC) is currently exploring adding an extra ferry to its fleet to improve resilience, with a one-off £10 million connectivity grant from the Scottish Government potentially going towards it.
Arrangements are being put in place to commission the design of two vessels; one sized at 33 metres and another at around 38 metres.
A report presented to a meeting of the SIC’s environment and transport committee on Monday said priority will be placed on the 33-metre design in the first instance.
But there was concern from some councillors over the prospect of this project “maintaining alignment” with ongoing work on a wider study into Shetland’s inter-island transport network, which will explore what the isles’ future connectivity needs are and will also consider tunnels.
North Isles member Robert Thomson said: “I don’t recall that being discussed before – I thought the idea was to get this ferry built as quickly as possible and get it in service?”
SIC infrastructure director John Smith said “time is of the essence” but added that with any significant expenditure, “you look for alignment”.
“[We] certainly wouldn’t want to hold anything up, there’s nothing being held up at the moment, but the business case process that has to be worked through for an additional ferry does draw on the same context as the inter-island transport connectivity review,” he said.
Smith added that he does not think this is anything “problematic”.
Thomson responded by saying he does not want the new vessel project to be delayed, as it is “really important to get this as quickly as possible”.
Lerwick South member Dennis Leask added that the new vessel project “really needs to stand alone”.
“It’s important that travels its route as quick as possible to be in service,” he said.
Environment and transport committee chair Moraig Lyall added the requirement for a new vessel is “urgent enough for us to be expecting there to be no delays that can possibly be avoided with this project”.
“We just urge everyone involved in that to make sure it moves forward as quickly as possible,” she continued.
It comes after a review was conducted by the council into ferry resilience.
A previous report said it has “become increasingly apparent as the review has progressed that seeking to maintain, never mind improve, the very high performance levels the ferry service delivers is likely to place unsustainable demands on existing staff and vessels”.
One option to improve ferry resilience has been to explore new vessel acquisition. The second market continues to be explored, but nothing suitable has appeared.
The fragility of the ferry service has been laid bare in recent times when a vessel goes out of action, due to a technical fault or a scheduled trip to dry dock.
The SIC has the Fivla as a so-called “spare” vessel but it is regularly called into service to step in as cover.
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