Whalsay ferry service hampered by engine and crewing issues

FERRY and crewing issues have hampered the Whalsay ferry service this week, with the route back down to a single vessel service today (Friday).

The Linga broke down on Wednesday morning, which meant that the Fivla had to come into service.

She also ran a single vessel service, with the Linga returning to action later.

However this morning the Whalsay ferry service has been impacted again, with two issues hitting the route.

The Fivla has been unable to run due to engineer sickness, with Shetland Islands Council trying to source an engineer to allow the vessel to run.

And the Hendra has also been unable to run due to engine problems.

That has left the Linga, which is running the service today to a single vessel timetable and with all bookings suspended.

Shetland News reported earlier this year that Shetland Islands Council spent almost £7 million on ferry maintenance in the last financial year, including £869,000 on Linga.

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SIC’s ferry maintenance spend reached nearly £7m last year

A further £571,000 was spent on Hendra, with £377,200 spent on maintaining the relief vessel Fivla.

It is not just the ferries that have experienced issues on the Whalsay route this week – there have also been problems with the ferry information signs in Vidlin and Laxo.

The signs were believed to have been directing commuters to the other pier, wrongly at times, at the start of this week.

Shetland Islands Council said contractors would shortly be repairing the Vidlin sign, and added that a “brief fault” on the Laxo sign had now “self-corrected”.