Transport / Hopes that business case for new freight vessels could be ready in the coming months
TRANSPORT officials are hopeful that an outline business case for two new Northern Isles freight vessels offering extra passenger capacity could be in place by around the end of the financial year.
A meeting of Shetland’s external transport forum heard on Tuesday that if that business case is approved then CMAL – the company which owns vessels on behalf of the Scottish Government – should then be able to go out to tender.
Transport Scotland’s head of ferries Chris Wilcock said under this timeline then the contract to build the ‘freighter flex’ vessels would be awarded in early to mid 2026.
He added that it could be 36 months from the contract being signed to delivery of the vessels – meaning that 2029 remains a target.
However, the transport official said there are “quite significant supply chain issues” which have been experienced in other shipping projects.
The meeting also heard that both vessels would come in relatively short succession of each other, potentially around three to six months.
Wilcock said CMAL continues to work closely with operator Serco NorthLink on design and testing of the vessel concept, with nothing throwing up any technical issues.
There is no change to the funding situation – with no allocation in the Scottish Government’s 2025/26 draft budget.
However, due to the timelines Wilcock said there was no expectation that funding would have been allocated in the budget.
External transport forum chair councillor Moraig Lyall said it was “good to hear that the programme is still moving forward”.
The replacements for the Helliar and Hildasay are long awaited – particularly as the models being explored would offer extra passenger space which could alleviate pressure on the NorthLink service in peak points.
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