Transport / Only one in five passengers think pods are ‘poor’, NorthLink boss says
NORTHLINK boss Stuart Garrett has again defended the ferry operator’s sleeping pods after claims visitors to the isles could be skewing data about how popular they are.
Garrett said just one in five passengers had voted the often-criticised pods as “poor” after using them in 2024.
Of 13,684 people responding to a NorthLink customer survey, he said almost 79 per cent had rated the pods as either “excellent”, “good” or “fair”.
However Green councillor Alex Armitage asked “where this data is coming from” and said he would have liked to have seen it broken down into islanders and visitors.
Visitors to the isles may never have used a sleeping pod before, he said, and he compared them to the business class chairs on a flight.
“They might think, ‘this is pretty reasonable’,” Armitage added.
However he said Shetlanders were more likely to rate the pods negatively as an alternative to a cabin, and being able to sleep horizontally.
The Shetland South councillor said the data should have been split between islanders and visitors so Tuesday’s external transport forum could see “how people answer that”.
Garrett admitted “it would be different” if split into those two categories, but said he was worried about the potential for “statistical bias” if the survey was split up this way.
He added he was “satisfied that this is a fair rating” for the pods.
Armitage also asked NorthLink if it could “incentivise” solo travellers to take up a two-berth cabin.
He said that a fourth-berth cabin was often cheaper than a two-berth was, which he said could lead to beds going spare on the ferries.
Armitage, an NHS paediatrician, said the health board would often book him alone into a four bed cabin because it cost less money.
He would then advertise his free beds on a Facebook group for sharing cabins, he added.
The Green councillor encouraged NorthLink to push solo travellers towards booking a two-berth cabin when they were going through the booking process.
Councillor Ian Scott questioned what the reason was for shared cabins not returning, particularly if Armitage was openly stating he was offering his cabin space to strangers.
“What changed?” he asked Garrett during the meeting.
However his question was shut down by forum chairwoman Moraig Lyall, who said this was an issue that had been discussed “multiple times”.
She told Scott to speak to Garrett in person after the meeting had concluded if he wanted to ask that question.
Shared cabins were stopped during Covid and Serco NorthLink has resisted the continued calls to reinstate them in the years after.
NorthLink boss Garrett has previously said the operator was comfortable with passengers finding fellow travellers to share a cabin as this would then be “their responsibility” rather than that of the company.
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