I built my own ferry for £14m so why are they squandering up to £400m of public cash?
CUTTING through the choppy waters of the Pentland Firth, the catamaran MV Alfred steers a steady course. The purpose-built vessel epitomises the determination and drive of owner Andrew Banks, who runs one of Scotland’s most successful private ferry companies. The boat, which sails between the mainland and Orkney, was built without a penny of public cash – and cost just £14 million.
By comparison, the two ferries being built at the nationalised Ferguson Marine yard are already several years overdue – and likely to cost a minimum of £250 million.
Twenty-one years’ success in the business has given Mr Banks a unique insight into the ferry fiasco engulfing Holyrood. And the farmer’s son, who has had two purpose-built vessels delivered for a fraction of the time and cost incurred by taxpayers at Fergusons, last night hit out at the ship shambles.
The 59-year-old, nicknamed ‘the Pentland Hero’, said: ‘It’s an absolute disgrace it has squandered so much public money. We built a new vessel for £14 million in Vietnam with basically the same carrying capacity as the new ones being built in Ferguson shipyard.’
Mr Banks – who received an OBE for services to transport – believes Ministers should pull the plug on the new ferries.
He said: ‘They should just scrap the two ships and start again. It’s much cheaper than to finish the vessels as they will be nearly obsolete by the time they’re completed.’
The two CalMac ferries from the Scottish Government-owned yard are due to be delivered five years late in 2023, with the cost soaring from £97 million to at least £250 million – and possibly £400 million. In contrast, Mr Banks set up Pentland Ferries, which runs between Caithness and South Ronaldsay, in 1998 without any public money.
He built his own piers and onshore infrastructure before launching the service with a £250,000 second-hand CalMac ferry in 2001.
The service – operated in the face of subsidised competition – proved popular and the firm commissioned its first catamaran, the 70-metre MV Pentalina, from the Philippines for under £10 million.
The ferry took around two years from commissioning to operating in 2009, which included time taken for the 9,800-mile trip to Orkney. Her successor, the £14 million MV
Alfred, which can carry 430 passengers and 98 cars, took about two years to commission and complete, including sailing from Vietnam.
In contrast, Scottish Ministers announced Ferguson Marine as their preferred bidder in 2015.
Seven years on it’s still unclear when the Glen Sannox and as yet unnamed ‘Hull 802’ will set sail. Last week, we told how a well-run Turkish shipyard has now landed a £110 million contract for two new CalMac ferries and Mr Banks hopes Ministers have learned from the Ferguson debacle.
He said: ‘If you build a house and the contractor quotes £350,000 and then says “I made a mistake” and wants £1.5 million, you’d walk away and call in the refund guarantees.
‘How they managed to order a ship with no refund guarantees beggars belief. I had it in place in Vietnam. It’s common practice. How they got into this mess, I’ve no idea. It’s mind-blowing what has been spent.’
Mr Banks believes the ferries are needlessly over-equipped. He said: ‘They’re going for high-spec, cruise ship standard for crew accommodation. For a ship’s crew doing two weeks on, two weeks off, there’s no
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need. It’s like Nicola Sturgeon saying all taxis in Edinburgh must be a Rolls-Royce or a Daimler.
‘You can imagine how much that’s going to cost and how much that’s going to increase the fare, so to keep the fare down they have to subsidise it – and that’s exactly what they’re doing with CalMac.
‘The ferries are just big fuelguzzlers. But nobody talks about it. It’s all covered up.’
Mr Banks says he raised the issue with SNP Minister Humza Yousaf. He recalled: ‘I said to the Transport Minister three or four years ago, if he gave me the West Coast routes I’d put brand new ships on them and wouldn’t require a subsidy to operate them. He just sort of laughed and didn’t really say anything. Because what could he say?’
Islanders still facing the interminable wait for a new ferry may well be wishing Ministers had taken Mr Banks up on his offer.