The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser [closing 28 February] primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson

By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Chair Faculty Research Ethics Committee, UWS and Global Ferry Correspondent 2025 and 2025

From Shetland News two days ago:

SHETLAND Islands Council could order a new ferry to add much needed resilience to its aging fleet.

The council has been on the lookout for a second-hand ferry for some time but has so far been unsuccessful on identifying a suitable vessel that could improve the reliability of the inter-island service. Initial discussions have been held with the naval architects involved in designing the new Fair Isle ferry, the council’s infrastructure director John Smith confirmed to Shetland News.

“At the moment the evidence seems to suggest that it is increasingly difficult to sustain the timetable with only one spare ferry, and with the fleet continuing to age, that is likely to get even more challenging,” he said. It is not known yet how the new ferry will be funded but one possibility is using the additional £10 million of funding from the Scottish Government earmarked to improve island connectivity.

The new ferry would be designed to be as versatile as can be to allow her to stand in on as many inter-island routes as possible. Council chief executive Maggie Sandison said: “When the council undertook the ferry resilience review [last year] we recognised that one of the ways to take the pressure off an aging fleet and address the risks about breakdown and the length of time vessels were spending in drydock. https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2025/02/13/sic-looking-building-new-ferry/

Shetland Islands Council Ferries (often named SIC Ferries) is a company operating inter-island ferry services in Shetland, a subarctic archipelago off the northeast coast of Scotland. The company operates services across 10 of the Shetland islands.¹

SIC Ferries operates 12 ferries of ages ranging from 43 to 20 years but SIC has not invested in the future with any new ferries since 2004, the last four all built in Poland, more than 20 years ago and despite sitting on £207 in usable reserves.²

In sharp contrast, for a fleet of 34 vessels with 12 less than 20 years old and 5 less than 10 years old, Calmac has 5 on-stream for delivery by 2025.³

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIC_Ferries
2. https://www.orkney.gov.uk/latest-news/oic-strategic-reserve-fund-performs-exceptionally/#:~:text=The%20value%20of%20the%20Strategic%20Reserve%20Fund%20now,order%20to%20earn%20a%20return%20on%20those%20investments.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_MacBrayne_fleet

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