Inter island ferry rip off or not?

[Benjidog]

So the council have had a good chunk of funding for ferries provided by the Scottish government. Are island residents due a fare reduction ?

[shetlander]

The funding the council has been told it will be getting won’t cover the annual running costs of the ferries. If anything island residents may well end up having to pay more to help plug the gap.

 

If you think the ferries here are a rip off have a look at Orkney and the cost/frequency of the services there compared to here.

[George.]

^Yet another possible reason to put bridges or tunnels out.

[Benjidog]

It might not cover the full cost of funding , but funding has been provided and surely a reduction is due

What should be said if r.e.t. wasn't implemented but funding was provided

If you live on any of the outer isles I'd be asking we're the extra 5 million is being spent

[George.]

^I would be asking, "How is somebody that falls ill in the middle of the night going to get to the Gilbert Bain fast? I'd be asking, "How is somebody living in Yell or Unst, Whalsay or anywhere else, but working at Sullom Voe terminal on 24 hour call going to get there quickly?" I'd be asking, "How are you, or anybody else, going to get from island to island when the weather is not too good?" I would also be asking, "Why are Iceland, Faroe, the coast of Norway, etc,etc, covered in bridges and tunnels?"

 

So why not ignore the supposed rip-off and deal with the problem properly?

[Benjidog]

All good points , but when it's comes down to it 5 million pounds has been given to run the ferries all swallowed up into the general pot none going back into reducing fares

Funding for tunnels and bridges are a different issue

If the Scottish government gave shetland money for tunnels and bridges but spent that money elsewhere all hell would be let loose

[George.]

Funding for tunnels and bridges are a different issue

^I would suggest that they are not a different issue in any way.

 

Up until now there has been an inter-island ferry system that, no doubt, has done its best. Unfortunately, it has not, in any way whatsoever, conquered all of the problems that it incurs. There is a massively better situation available to the ferry system that, at present, we have availabe.

 

IMHO, the inter-island ferry system is a rip-off. It does not fulfil the system required but it costs us pots and pots of money regardless.

Edited January 26, 2019 by George.

[shetlander]

It might not cover the full cost of funding , but funding has been provided and surely a reduction is due

What should be said if r.e.t. wasn't implemented but funding was provided

If you live on any of the outer isles I'd be asking we're the extra 5 million is being spent

I’m still not sure what you’re getting at Benjidog or why you think isles residents should be in line for fare reductions.

 

The £5 million ‘extra’ the council is getting isn’t extra to what it’s previously received or extra to any other money it will get to run the ferries. It’s the only money it’s getting from the SG for the ferries (and is ring fenced for that) and is about £2.6m less than what it asked for and needs if services are to stay as they are.

 

So unless that changes, the council is either going to have to plug the gap by reducing services, raising fares, raiding the reserves or a combination of all three.

[whalsa]

^^^ Nail on the head Shetlander.

 

Fare reductions would be brilliant, as would increased weekend runs (like the Whalsay residents are campaigning for) but the reality is Holyrood are not providing enough to cover the costs, leaving an even bigger hole in the SICs budget than previously predicted. 

The 5 million has not been "swallowed up into the general pot" it is going to help run the ferries so that the Councils ever thinning resources can be spent keeping other services going. 

[Ghostrider]

I've asked this before, but never gotten an answer.

 

Can anybody explain why, when the Council put the Foula boat out to tender they pretty much halved the cost of providing the service, a high percentage of that saving coming from 'Admin savings' when the contract was awarded the second time, that the same model wouldn't achieve similar if rolled out across the board?

 

AFAIK Foula has still had the same service level, provided by the same boat, and the same crew on similar employment T&C's as they did with the Council. So where's the downside, even if the saving elsewhere was significantly less, surely even 5% or 10% of the overall budget saved would be welcome converted in to additional services in the present situation.

 

Seems to me to be a 'Win' situation for everyone, so why isn't it at least being explored?

[Colin]

Because they (SIC) know the price of everything and the value of nothing !

 

Admin charges are so high because the "admin" is, very likely, overstaffed.and everybody's wages probably have to be allocated across available "cost centres" (ferries(?)).

[sabre13]

I would be asking that if you are so concerned about wether you will be able to get to the Hospital fast from an outer island then you shouldn't be living on an outer island in the first place and you are obviously daft if you have not thought about this before moving to an outer island(If you thought about moving to a remote place in Alaska would you not consider that emergency services would not be able to get to you quickly?)

Many people who live on outer islands do so because they like living in a remote area and an unspoilt area and do not want bridges and tunnels as that means more houses etc being built thus spoiling a natural haven for wildlife.

 

One way of solving this is to modernise the ferries and so in the long game save money but as ever there never seems to be the finance to invest or maybe there is just not the foresight.

https://electrek.co/2018/02/03/all-electric-ferry-cuts-emission-cost/