Transport / Transport official questions if pod lounges are safer than shared cabins
Robina Barton said she felt ‘very vulnerable’ in one, and said she is not alone
NORTHLINK’S pod lounges left one transport official feeling “very vulnerable” – and she has said she is not alone.
Robina Barton questioned if sharing pod lounges was really safer than shared cabins.
It came after NorthLink chief Stuart Garrett said explicitly at Tuesday’s external transport forum that shared cabins “are not coming back”.
Council transport policy and projects officer Barton pointed to a petition started this week calling for the return of shared cabins aboard NorthLink ferries.
But Garrett replied: “There’s plenty of petitions. Shared cabins are not coming back.”
Barton went on to ask what the difference between people of mixed genders sharing a cabin and sharing a pod lounge were.
She alluded to comments by Transport Scotland’s Alan McCabe at a previous transport forum, in which he claimed changing gender politics made it difficult for shared cabins to return.
Garrett denied that he had ever said gender was the issue with shared cabins.
And he said “safety” was the primary reason why they will not return.
“Pod lounges are open to crew,” he said.
“They are common user spaces, there’s CCTV.”
None of these things were true of shared cabins, he added.
Barton said the “public perception” was that gender was the issue with shared cabins.
She also questioned whether pod lounges were really safer.
“I spent one night in one, and I felt very vulnerable in one as a woman,” Barton told the forum.
“I don’t think I’m alone in that.”
Shetland News reported last year about a local couple who said they would never use the pod lounges again after being subjected to a night from hell.
Mari Anderson said that she had seen the pods as a “safe place” before the incident, which saw a group of drunken men fighting in the pod lounge.
NorthLink said it had imposed “travel sanctions” on those involved following the night in question.
Barton also told the transport forum that she had been unable to book a cabin on the two NorthLink ferries for three future dates that she had looked at.
McCabe said there was space available on the NorthLink ferries during the summer – just maybe not cabins.
He added there was capacity aboard the Hrossey and Hjaltland “most of the time”, even in peak periods, but that often cabins were fully booked.
He said Transport Scotland were constantly considering buying new ships for the NorthLink fleet to ensure capacity was increased on the route.
But he said they would “need to get a boat that has cabins if that’s what is wanted”.
McCabe also questioned whether that might have a knock-on effect on the likelihood of two freight-plus ferries getting the green light from the Scottish Government.
Tuesday’s external transport forum came on the same day NorthLink announced the Hjaltland would not be returning from dry dock until at least the weekend following the pump room flood which left the Northern Isles with one fit passenger vessel.
Garrett revealed that all of the pumps have had to be taken out for testing, some circuitbreakers have had to be replaced and cabling with water ingress has had to be stripped out.
He said the incident was “very unfortunate and very disappointing”.
The NorthLink chief said that, if the incident had not occurred, this would have been “one of the best dry docks on the vessel”.
He added that Hjaltland’s return was “getting closer”, and that he hoped to be able to provide more information about the flood once she did.
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