Паромная переправа Западной Шотландии: История и развитие

Passenger and vehicle ferry company in Scotland

Western Ferries (Clyde) Ltd (also known as Western Ferries) is a private ferry company with its headquarters in Hunters Quay, Scotland. It currently operates on the Firth of Clyde running a year round, high frequency vehicle carrying service between Hunters Quay, near Dunoon, and McInroy's Point, on the outskirts of Gourock in Inverclyde.

In the mid 1960s the islands on the west coast of Scotland were served by two kinds of vessel; mail ferries operated by David MacBrayne Ltd and "puffers" – small bulk cargo vessels capable of landing at simple piers or on the beach to discharge coal, lime etc. MacBrayne's also operated a number of cargo vessels out of Glasgow. None of these vessels was equipped to deal with road transport. Three car ferries operated by MacBrayne's were all side loading and not suited to carrying the sharply increasing growth in tourist traffic or commercial vehicles. In 1966 three people engaged in contracting work on the west coast decided to set up the Eileann Sea Service. With the help of an HIDB loan a landing craft type vessel, Isle of Gigha was constructed and started operation in the middle of the seaman's strike. But in November the ship capsized and this put the company in financial difficulty. If anything further were to happen, more money and technical back up would be needed. A group of Scottish businessmen having special interest in shipping and haulage matters, many of whom also had local interest in Islay and Jura, subscribed £100,000 capital and Western Ferries was set up.

was ordered from Ferguson Brothers (Port Glasgow) Ltd. of Port Glasgow. She was designed to carry 20 cars or a combination of cars and commercial vehicles. She was launched amid a storm of derision. Traffic developed rapidly and in August 1974, the former Isle of Wight ferry, joined the service as Sound of Sanda. This crossing was much shorter than the parallel Caledonian MacBrayne Public Service route. Although CalMac's vessels were considerably faster, their longer route meant that both operators took around 20 minutes to make the crossing. The simpler ro ro service was regular, frequent and ran from 7 am until 10 pm. Their rates matched the recently reduced rates of CalMac. Traffic kept both services very active. In 1985, after the Clyde service was transferred to Western Ferries (Clyde) Ltd, new tonnage was sought and appeared in the spring of 1986 when the company bought another former Sealink ferry, the Freshwater. She entered service as Sound of Seil in 1986. A further vessel, the Sound of Sleat, a former Dutch river ferry (ex de Hoorn) was added two years later. Two further ferries were purchased from Dutch owners, in 1995 and 1996. Both Sound of Scalpay and the second Sound of Sanda replaced older vessels. In 2013 two brand new vessels were commissioned by Western. These were built by the Cammell Laird Shipyard in Merseyside. Entering the fleet in October of that year as Sound of Soay and Sound of Seil this brought the fleet size to six however this dropped to four on disposal of the two oldest vessels (Scalpay and Sanda). The company employs 57 staff including six directors of whom 50 live in the Dunoon area.

In early January 2010, the company announced that it was to commence a high frequency, low fare route between Ardrossan and Brodick in direct competition to publicly owned Caledonian MacBrayne. They stated that they were planning to build a new vessel with a carrying capacity of 400 passengers and 70 vehicles and services were expected to begin in 2012. In September 2011 managing director Gordon Ross announced that the Arran project is still very much alive but will be delayed by the uncertainty as to whether the Arran route will be tendered separately from the main CalMac bundle in 2013.