Ferries

[Heoga40]

Yet again the people of the north isles are facing threat of an increase in ferry fairs brought on by the counsels inability to come up with a better solution .It seems that when the council need to save money the first place they look is to the isles first it was the schools now it's the ferries what next .I think they should look closer to home why no cut their expenses or take a pay cut I'm not sure how much they get but whatever it is it's to much.We had one of those drop in meetings in Yell the reason was i think so they did not have a hall full of people shouting at them but you could not get a sensible answer from any of the councilors and when you asked them something they didn't have an answer for they just looked at there feet i did hear someone say It's like pruning a tree you don't start from the bottom you start from the top.

[trowie246]

As tough as it is with 'yet another' increase in ferry fares our inter island fares are still a hell of a lot cheaper than Orkney's. I think it is fair enough that pensioners are being asked to contribute, a pound for a return journey is not alot. But as someone pointed out children do not earn money so their fares are obviously being paid by the parents, who already are paying for a least a car and driver.

 

I understand that tourists will pay extra to go to Fair Isle but I don't understand why it's not being extended to all the Isles? I know that any kind of different ticket system will have administration costs but why can't they, for example, have it set up so tourists have to collect a card or ticket from the Tourist Office and have the fare twice the cost of the normal charge? This would still be a reasonable price and I think tourists would pay it. So the card is shown and the ticket operator issues two tickets? There is an element of trust with this that tourists will use the card but I think it would be better than visitors paying the same as locals.

 

I'm far more worried about ferries being completely removed from service than an increase in fares.

[glipper]

I think it is fair enough that pensioners are being asked to contribute,..

 

Its not just pensioners who travel free on the ferry its 60 and over i know of a guy who lives on an Island who is 60 and in a job earning over £40'000 why dont they make the free travel for people who are pension age..There are a lot of people between 60-65 who could still be paying on the ferrys that could rake in a few thousand pounds in a year..

[Acid]

@ Heoga40 - Agree with you! I also stand by the saying of you prune a tree from the top and sides, cut from the bottom you kill the tree. Councils run like companies. When they need to make cuts, out go the contract cleaners, the stationary, part timers, yet multipul MANAGERS and DIRECTORS don't take pay cuts, they get pay increases. We all know that council work isn't black and wait. We just know some people get away with everything while the majority get nothing.

 

The ferry increases are a disgrace. It's the lifeline to the Isles, how dare a council damage the people that vote them in (or not in most case)

 

I wont comment much more, I'll only become an enemy of the council (;

[unlinkedstudent]

So what are the alternatives? It isn't the Councillors' fault that the Government capped council tax. Whilst I agree to an extent re management within the council, there comes a point where people have to realise that there is such a thing called inflation - are you seriously saying that fares should never increase? If it is a toss up between no ferries or fares going up and no other choice on the table, which would you rather have?

 

As many people have said on here, cuts are unpopular and I'm sure we've all got our preferences where we'd like to see the cuts fall and I doubt it very much that the SIC are going to please all of us.

[JustMe]

I think it is fair enough that pensioners are being asked to contribute,..

 

Its not just pensioners who travel free on the ferry its 60 and over i know of a guy who lives on an Island who is 60 and in a job earning over £40'000 why dont they make the free travel for people who are pension age..There are a lot of people between 60-65 who could still be paying on the ferrys that could rake in a few thousand pounds in a year..

At a guess this is something to do with the Bus Pass kicking in at 60yo and with ferry concessions being linked to the Bus Pass. As a pensioner (living on a pension) I am not too against contributing a pound per return crossing if it helps keep the ferry service running. At the same time I do accept that "something must be done" when the council has less income from Central Government and less income from investments.

 

But that does not mean that I am happy to sit and watch all the islands being killed off by council policies. We have to end up with cuts that still provide what islands "need" to keep them alive.

[veng]

We all know there has to be cut..It wouldn't be so bad if every area was affected evenly and fairly with the cuts..You have a guy like the Flea sitting in the town hall hell bent on closing schools and wan cut the ferry services to the outer isles which will have no affect on him..There's no mention of any big cuts in the South mainland or the Lerwick area..

I wonder why..?

[unlinkedstudent]

^ Well, we ain't exactly got a lot to be cut down here in the sarf end. That said, a local after school play group is currently asking for donations on Facebook due to cuts in their budget.

[BigMouth]

I think that the SIC should cut some of the services across to Yell in the daytime. On many occasions I have been on crossings with only half a dozen cars on them. I wouldn't mind waiting an extra half an hour for a cruise across Yell Sound.

[JustMe]

I think that the SIC should cut some of the services across to Yell in the daytime. On many occasions I have been on crossings with only half a dozen cars on them. I wouldn't mind waiting an extra half an hour for a cruise across Yell Sound.

Trouble with this is that the ferry coming the other way could be full. Anyway cutting a few services may not save much money if there is still a crew on the other ferry just doing nothing.

 

Actually I do have an idea for Yell Sound. Build a causeway to one of the islands perhaps with some sort of tidal generation built in and run a single ferry over the other section. A bit capital intensive to start with but serious savings in the long term.

[BigMouth]

I was thinking along the line of only having one ferry running in the day time, but I didn't make that obvious.

 

This is where the tunnel should have gone instead of faffing about with a bridge to Bressay. Either that or a low covered bridge with a leg on Samphrey.

[BigMouth]

The other alternative is to declare Yell an autonomous republic and let them provide their own service. In fact the SIC should give all these islands money per capita and let them provide all their own services.

[Urabug]

Very simple put the ferries out to private tender, and if a certain operator got the contract, there would be a lot less crew to pay,also less disruption for refits, probably less runs as well .

 

We would probably need to learn another language to understand the crew

 

[glipper]

Very simple put the ferries out to private tender, and if a certain operator got the contract, there would be a lot less crew to pay,also less disruption for refits, probably less runs as well .

 

We would probably need to learn another language to understand the crew

 

 

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..

[JustMe]

I was thinking along the line of only having one ferry running in the day time, but I didn't make that obvious.

 

This is where the tunnel should have gone instead of faffing about with a bridge to Bressay. Either that or a low covered bridge with a leg on Samphrey.

I was thinking of daytime sailings as well. I quite often travel on one that can be half full one day and half empty the next but the incoming sailing is very often full.