Ferries

[Colin]

[Scorrie]

[glipper]

[tabbahenry]

seen it over 50 in whalsay daily

[Kavi Ugl]

The truth is we have a Rolls Royce ferry service in Shetland.

Would the likes of Fair Isle, Skerries, Foula and Papa Stour not be okay with one return trip to the mainland per week?.

Or, why not have the Filla doing a weekly round Shetland service?.

Monday Fair Isle, Tuesday Foula, Wednesday Papa Stour and Thursday Skerries.

Similarly, would one of the super ferries doing a shuttle service on Yell Soond not suffice?.

[saltire]

Glipper wrote,
Its not as simple as that if you reduce the crews on the ferrys they have to reduce the passengers they can carry if you go from 5 to 4 crew on the ferrys you go from being able to carry 125 passengers by law to 50..

This isnt acurate as Western Ferries on the Clyde only have 4 man crews and there ferries can carry up to 220 passengers.

[unlinkedstudent]

[ll]

[quote="saltire"]Glipper wrote,
Its not as simple as that if you reduce the crews on the ferrys they have to reduce the passengers they can carry if you go from 5 to 4 crew on the ferrys you go from being able to carry 125 passengers by law to 50..

This isnt acurate as Western Ferries on the Clyde only have 4 man crews and there ferries can carry up to 220 passengers.[/quote]

I think the Mousa Ferry only has two of a crew but can sail with 60 passengers?

[JustMe]

[shetlander]

The fact is that the current ferry service costs a huge amount to run and in the current economic climate, just isn’t economically sustainable. Just as we have heard in arguments about the need to keep schools or social care services or the museum just as they are, leaving the current ferry service alone will mean that something else (which someone, somewhere will value just as much) has to suffer disproportionately by bearing a bigger brunt of the cuts.

[piggywiggie]

[Sudden Stop]

Fares will have to go up and up, and up again. As someone said - the ferries are an road equivalent and as we all know it's getting more and more expensive to travel on roads.

The cost of fuel is rising every week and that effects ALL forms of mass transport whether that be car, train, plane or the humble SIC ferry. I'm afraid the ferry fares will have to rise and people will just have to suck it up...
_________________
Old Navy proverb:
Always be happy when the troops are moaning - if the b*ggers go quiet it means they're plotting!

[paulb]

any chance that the SIC could request the Scottish government to extend the road equivalent scheme to our inter island ferries.

[veng]

[Shoogler]

What's clear from the ferry review stuff is that there is a large amount of efficiency/operational savings to be made without ANY effect on the level of service. This is typical of the culture of management in SIC that has become the norm. Even before getting into the next tier of potential service reduction, a large saving can be achieved. Only then do we start to hear of radical options that would alter the service and need a lot of analysis of the effects.

Interested in the comment above about crewing on Western Ferries on mainland. Is there some hard evidence/explanation of this? Is there something different in play regarding MCA rules in Shetland waters?

The fact remains that the SIC pay better and have better conditions for staff than any comparable service in the land. That's the area that has rthe most cost, followed by relentlessly higher fuel

[saltire]

This is not MCA rules that dictates the crewing on SIC ferries, its SIC policy.

[veng]

[JustMe]

Just a thought but how much input have the crews had in finding ways to cut costs?. Or to increase revenue?. Might well be worthwhile having a way for all crew members to contribute (anonymously) to the next round of consultation. And why not extend this to all the staff involved in ferries from directors to tea boys (if such people exist)?.

[ll]

With current daily ferry capacity more than adequate to completely evacuate the island being served, but still not adequate at peak time, can demand not be regulated by peak/off peak (even free off peak may be cheaper than having to run and crew two ferries) pricing.

If you compare levels of service to Orkney, it would seem prices here are up to one sixth of their cost and roughly four times the level of services exist to comparable islands.

http://www.orkneyferries.co.uk/

With stop start technology saving lots of money to car users, it would doubtless save loadsamoney puting out ropes so as propulsion systems can be taken off load or shut down?

[JustMe]

[Carlos]

A better ferry service encourages centralization?

[Lapse Rate]

[stilldellin]