A Norwegian lesson for Scotland’s ferries

The chronic unreliability of the Clyde and Hebridean ferries, a monopoly owned and operated by Scottish government agencies, has caused serious economic decline within island communities. But that unreliability is not surprising, when half the fleet is beyond its efficient operating life — in some cases, well beyond.

To help plug the gap, the Scottish government commissioned two new large ferry vessels. And at the insistence of its coalition partners, the Scottish Greens, they were designed to run on low-emission fuel. Those two vessels, MV Glen Sannox and MV Glen Rose have cost taxpayers £450 million, more than four times their already eye-watering budget. And it turns out that MV Glen Sannox, which has just entered service, will have a bigger carbon footprint than even the 42-year-old rust bucket it replaces.

It is known as the Ferry Fiasco. And it makes you think that the Scottish government could learn a thing or two from a fairly near neighbour — Norway, which manages to run modern, environmentally friendly ferries, plying happily and reliably between the many small communities all over the fjords. 

Why the difference? In 2012, a Scottish ferry expert group identified the reasons. For a start, they noted, Norway’s ferries ply the shortest feasible crossings, plugging into the road network. Road is a lot cheaper than sea-going, so that makes sense, doesn’t it? But Scotland’s crossings are largely historic, based around rail (so, foot passengers) rather than road. 

Norway also runs frequent ferry services, using smaller vessels, often catamarans. Being smaller, they are reliable and can fit into pretty much every port in case you need to change schedules. And you can simply take vessels out of service during low seasons and bring them back at peak times, doing any maintenance needed in the off-peak periods. Another sensible idea, eh? But Scotland runs big ships, so there are long gaps between crossings. And the bigger ships can only get into a few ports, so the fleet doesn’t have Norway’s flexibility.

Norway operates its ferries for eighteen hours a day on the busier routes, providing passengers with flexibility and convenience over their travel plans. Scotland’s ferry services are mostly confined to daylight hours. Why? Mainly because CalMac, the government-owned ferry operator, is the most labour-intensive ferry network in Europe, thanks to the stranglehold of the RMT union. Indeed, the onboard crewing is three times that in comparable Norwegian ferries, while the terminal staffing is typically four times larger. Longer hours would mean even bigger crews, which these staffing levels make cripplingly expensive.

Norway runs its ferries at moderate speed to minimise fuel consumption. Norway’s ferries are mainly electric, and it is exploring models that will use batteries, with solar panels and retractable sails to help charge them. There is even a green hydrogen ferry in service. All makes sense in this energy-conscious age, doesn’t it? Scotland’s crossing times and speeds, by contrast, are largely defined by historic timetables and routes. There are a few diesel-electric ferries, but development is well behind Norway.

Norwegian ferry operators commission and provide their own vessels, so they are very customer-focused in what they build. But they use standardised, ‘off the shelf’ designs, usually ordered in batches. That makes sense because that makes them cheaper than custom designs and can inter-operate between a range of ports. Terminals are standardised too, with lock-in linkspans. While the smaller vessels in the CalMac fleet are also reasonably standardised, the larger vessels are custom designed, making them expensive. The smaller vessels in Scotland dock using a mixture of ramps or linkspans, and the larger ones us ramps or slipways, a mixture that can make passenger access difficult when vessels are diverted to other ports. Scotland’s Clyde and Hebridean ferries are (almost) all operated by the government-owned monopoly CalMac and commissioned by the government-owned infrastructure company, CMAL, which is more distant from customers.

But there are other places could learn from too. As close as Orkney, off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland, the commercial company Pentland Ferries, carries 40,000 vehicles and 110,000 passengers annually, in vessels designed to cope with even five-metre waves. Further off, in British Columbia, a Canadian government subsidiary runs ferries, but it is obliged to allow other operators in if they can deliver safe and reliable services at lower cost. So Scottish-style politics gives way to customer focus all round.

Or again, the Canary Islands ferries were a state monopoly (challenged only by Fred Olsen) until they were privatised in 1995. Now, a variety of companies such as Naviera Armas, Olsen, Líneas Romero and Biosfera Express, operate 43 ferry crossings from 17 ports to from and within the eight Islands. And today, around 5.5 million passengers use the ferries each year, more than double the numbers in the state monopoly era — and nobody is suggesting going back to that. 

Turning a blind eye to the alternatives, the Scottish government still sticks with its monopoly on owning, commissioning, and operating what are highly unreliable ferries. But that’s politics, played on taxpayer’s money and with the lives and fortunes of the island communities. 

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Oooh, super! We just love competitive markets, even in tax