Editorial: Renfrew Ferry axe a cut too far
Shipping Times believes Clyde ferry service is a jewel in the crown of transport services...

Readers further afield from the Clyde (the area where Shipping Times hails from) must excuse this parochial editorial, but your editor feels it would be remiss of him not to address what for the communities of Yoker and Renfrew on the Clyde is an important issue.

The Renfrew ferry has existed in some form or another for some 500 years. Currently it is served by two ageing vessels that make the short trip, heavily subsidised, many times throughout the day, providing foot passengers with a much needed link to communities on each side of the river.

The car-owning public can ignore this service, as they can nip through the Clyde tunnel. Yes, there is a tunnel for those on foot or who cycle, but such an option is not one that even the strongest hearts would undertake without some trepidation. Indeed, it is often seen as a way of giving one some extra adrenalin to brave the creepy, long and often deserted pedestrian tunnel...not recommended medicine for the elderly, easily frightened or children.

But it is not just the car-owners who ignore the ferry, it would seem the SPT, who operate the service, have ignored it too long, as far as marketing is concerned.

For those who use the service, and it would appear that most users are regulars, it is a lifeline service and a joy to use. Many use it to visit relatives, go to work, or to visit Braehead Shopping Centre (albeit there is a bit of a walk involved). At each side there are charms that can draw the other and the trip itself, short as it is, gives local children a little excitement and wonder.

With all the new developments taking place on both sides of the river at this point, the ferry service should be even more valuable than it was in the recent past. The numbers who use it may be small compared to the buses, trains and underground that SPT have to operate, but in relative terms it is equally as vital to those passengers who do use it.

But it is not just these passengers that SPT should think about but the potential for so many more to use the service, if time and money could be taken and used to improve it, make it more efficient and relevant to the needs of the travelling, pedestrian public. For example, the current vessels are expensive to run, is it beyond the wit and purse of SPT to invest in new, more efficient vessels that can call at Braehead's pontoons, thus providing North Bank shoppers with a very fast and convenient link to a very popular destination.

Howsoever things could be improved, they certainly will not be by simply axing a valued service because it is relatively easy to ignore the relatively small numbers of people who use it.

And perhaps the SPT should consider too that axing the ferry is also discrimination against the poorest in these communities who have no cars?

A lack of will and imagination is at fault here, not the ferry link itself, which should be a jewel in SPT's crown.