Ferry options moved to top of agenda

AN OPTIONS appraisal on the Corran Ferry service will now take place in the current financial year following the chaos brought about by its recent breakdown and the unavailability of the reserve vessel.

Highland Council’s Lochaber Area Committee members agreed the move at their recent August meeting.

The Council Redesign Board for Transport Services, which included the Corran Ferry Service, made an undertaking in February for an appraisal to include the options of in-house service delivery; an arms-length external organisation and out-sourcing to another provider.

Committee members heard costs resulting from last month’s breakdown of the lifeline service totalled £39,000, which included a loss of £30,000 in fares.

In the report discussed by area committee members last week, Richard Porteous, road operations manager, and Robin Pope, policy and programmes manager, stated the increasing age of the vessels inevitably meant that the likelihood of mechanical failure was rising.

Trials undertaken two years ago with CalMac’s strongest suitable vessel of a comparable size were unsuccessful due to the design of CalMac vessels, which are roll-on-roll-off, and unable to operate in the strong tidal current end-on to the Corran slipway.

A suggestion that the Royal Navy could be asked to supply landing craft may be looked into, but to transport an equivalent number of cars would require more than one and there could still be technical difficulties due to landing craft having ramps at the bow.

In addition, if enough cars cannot be transported quickly enough, traffic queues would quickly build up out onto the A82.

Alternative passenger vessels being considered by council officials include the ferries at Treslaig, Cromarty and Glenelg.

It is intended to continue work to enable trials to be arranged in the autumn when seasonally operated vessels are likely to be available.

As recommended by the German steering engineers at their recent visit, the valves in the Corran Ferry’s steering system will be replaced at her next refit in October.

They also recommend that the control system for the steering is replaced at the next earliest opportunity, which is the October 2018 refit.

The latest cost estimate for replacing the control system is £140,000, to be met from the vessel’s maintenance budget.

Meetings are also planned with Stagecoach and Shiel buses to discuss contingency plans for any similar situation in the future.

Speaking to the Lochaber Times this week, Andrew Baxter, councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan and chairman of the Lochaber Area Committee, said it had taken many years of campaigning by councillors and the peninsula communities for the council to finally agree it needed to look at the long-term sustainability of the Corran Ferry.

‘Since the council first decided to hike ferry fares by more than 20 per cent in one year, I’ve argued that fiddling around with fare structures is not the answer - we need to decide whether a ferry is the best option, if so how it funded, and if a fixed link is viable and affordable,’ Mr Baxter added.

‘Unfortunately, it took a complete loss of service across the Corran Narrows and the ensuing chaos for council officers to realise that this is not some parochial issue that Lochaber councillors like to make a lot of noise about for this to rise towards the top of their agenda.’