Transport / SIC needs ‘another ferry at least’ in fleet to improve resilience, chief executive says
It comes after a councillor said the ferry service was operating on a ‘knife edge’
THE COUNCIL needs another ferry – “at least” – to deal with capacity issues across its service.
That is the view of Shetland Islands Council (SIC) chief executive Maggie Sandison, who said with only one spare vessel in the fleet at the moment the local authority “can’t really deliver a service that’s resilient”.
Meanwhile she also said regarding the future make-up of Shetland’s internal transport network that it should not be a case of “ferries or tunnels – it’s ferries and tunnels”.
This is because of the ageing ferry fleet and the time it could take not only prepare the case for tunnels but also to construct them.
It follows a year in which there has been regular disruption to the SIC’s ferry service, partially in the North Isles – with crew availability a key factor as well as mechanical issues.
Speaking at a meeting last week, North Isles councillor Robert Thomson warned if another ferry failed during those first two weeks in January the SIC could be in a “very, very difficult situation”.
He suggested the council might have to draft in another vessel from Whalsay up to Bluemull Sound, creating a knock-on effect.
“I think we’ve really got to get to grips with looking at alternative tonnage, whether it’s used or whether it’s new build and treat this as a real priority,” Thomson said.
He said the council’s ferry service was working on a “knife edge” at the moment.
It comes as consultants continue to explore the future needs of Shetland’s transport network – including possible tunnels, which have strong political support in the chamber.
The end result of this process should be business cases for attracting possible future investment.
SIC chief executive Maggie Sandison said the council acknowledges that there needs to be interim solutions for ferries.
A new ferry for Fair Isle plus harbour upgrades – which has attracted nearly £27 million in UK Government funding – is the first project on that list, she said.
A full business case for that project is set come in front of councillors in private this week, with a hope of work starting on the ground in Fair Isle next year.
“We’ve got ageing ferries, the capacity is really pressured on some of them, and we need more ferry capacity even for things like dry docking,” Sandison said.
“We’ve seen that the ferries as they’re getting older take longer when they’re going to dry dock. We’ve had mechanical breakdowns.
“And actually with just one spare ferry we can’t really deliver a service that’s resilient. So we need another ferry at least in fleet in the meantime and probably others.”
She added that the “key thing” is that if the SIC invests in a ferry, then it should be able to be moved around the islands rather than being tied to one community.
“We have to think differently,” Sandison said, if capacity issues are to be solved.
In September a ferries resilience report went in front of councillors, who delegated authority to officers to further explore opportunities for suitable second hand or new vessel acquisition.
A range of staffing actions were also approved, including refining recruitment and examining changes to shift patterns.
Meanwhile the first round of public consultation for the inter-island transport study is set to take place in December.
Sandison said this will include people’s current experiences of travel – the difficulties they face, for example.
“It’s really for us to understand for each community the pressures around demand, the challenges that people experience with a lack of resilience,” she said.
This is a first stage before any future options are discussed.
Sandison noted how some travel arrangements have changed “post-Covid”, while there is also the ageing population to take into account.
She said tunnels would not be a quick process and highlighted how the Fair Isle ferry project has taken several years so far.
“There is a lot of work to do around developing a business case that somebody can invest in,” Sandison said.
“And whether that’s us as a council, whether it’s private sector, whether it’s government – they’re going to be need something that we can describe as an investible product, and that’s the business case.
“And we have to do it right. Where we need funding from other people, they’re going to test it, they’re going to check it, they’re going to make sure it’s robust.
“We can’t cut elements of the business case out and just jump to the solution.
“I know everybody feels that the solutions are tunnels but we have to do the homework to demonstrate that.”
Sandison added that it is “not going to be Shetland Islands Council that can afford to build tunnels”.
As a result the process needs to be robust enough to be analysed by government civil servants, or show to the private sector that tunnels are an investible proposition, she said.
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