Amherst and Wolfe Islands (population 2 000) are dependent on two ferries to the nearby city of Kingston, Ontario in Canada. Two replacement ferries (above), built quickly in Romania, are still not operational, two years after delivery.
It’s a service a bit like the Largs-Millport one operated by CalMac.
Locals have contacted the provincial government about this ferry crisis, but were shocked to hear: “the ministry does not have any documents that outline an implementation plan or implementation date.”
Locals are now saying the old ferries are a better option than the new ones and have called for the Auditor General to carry out an investigation.
The newer of the two Largs-Millport ferries, the MV Loch Shirra was built by Ferguson Marine in 2006.
CalMac was running at 97.2% reliability yesterday, 95.4% for the season and making 52 crossings a day at 100% reliability for Millport.
Maybe the local politicians from Amherst and Wolfe Islands should make a fact-finding trip to Millport?
Footnote: How did two wee Romanian ferries get all the way to Lake Ontario? There is a river from the lake to the sea at Quebec. See this:
The vessels recently sailed from the shipbuilder Damen Shipyards Galati to Constanta, for onwards transportation to Canada [4 838 miles away!] onboard a heavy-lift semi-submersible transport vessel.
https://www.shippax.com/en/press-releases/zero-emission-amherst-islander-ii-and-wolfe-islander-iv-successfully-completed.aspx
How much did that cost?
There are three shipyards in Hamilton on Lake Ontario, 200 miles from Kingston as opposed to the nearly 5 000 from Romania.
It’s 18 miles from Port Glasgow’s Ferguson Engineering to Largs.
FFS!
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
A touch miffed at the “built quickly in Romania” device to imply shoddiness, it’s far too “BBC Scotland”….
It is either built to spec or it is not, it is either built to the scheduled time or it is not.
Built slowly and under spec is largely a recent British ‘tradition’ 😁, see Mr James McColl for details.
“How much did that cost?”- A small fortune at a guess, but sufficient to satisfy the bid in these libtard times with “low mileage on the clock”… 😉
You would need to visit Galati (pronounced Galatz) to understand just how central to life there boat-building has always been and remains – Their expertise in ferries has kept local traffic running regularly as well enabling northern access to the Danube delta all year round..
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