Glen Sannox

[Quandary]

Politics seem to be deeply embedded into everything in Scotland at the moment. I do wish politicians of all flavours would just keep out of the way and not either grandstand or carp. Wishful thinking I know.

Good luck with that! How do you expect Ruthie to attract enough attention to replace Teresa, Driving a tank is so last year?

 

[Spyro]

I always thought Troon was a more sensible choice but do appreciate the impact it moving would have had on Ardrossan. That said ferry dodging in and out of clyde marina is something I don't miss since my move up firth.

I quite enjoy the ferry dodging. It's fine when you know the timetables.
I'm not going to miss "yacht approaching Ardrossan harbour, yacht approaching Ardrossan harbour" Cheery chops in the tower is to replaced soon by a camera and remote operation of the lights. I don't know who's going to move the car ramp up and down as that was part of his duties. Maybe remote operation also.

 

[pagoda]

I quite enjoy the ferry dodging. It's fine when you know the timetables.
I'm not going to miss "yacht approaching Ardrossan harbour, yacht approaching Ardrossan harbour" Cheery chops in the tower is to replaced soon by a camera and remote operation of the lights. I don't know who's going to move the car ramp up and down as that was part of his duties. Maybe remote operation also.

All that kind of stuff could have been automated/ made remote 5 years ago with Raspberry Pi/Arduino level technology , a custom App and a mobile phone connection in the wheelhouse of the ferry..
Heavens - the new Ferry terminals are NOT planned to have card operated ticket machines at the outset. Just queues , a counter and employees selling tickets the old way? People have been able to buy rail and bus tickets by machine for years, why not short ferry runs?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Heavens - the new Ferry terminals are NOT planned to have card operated ticket machines at the outset. Just queues , a counter and employees selling tickets the old way? People have been able to buy rail and bus tickets by machine for years, why not short ferry runs?

Calmac have introduced a new ticketing system for the Rothesay ferry which is so muh slower than the old one that they have announced that anyone turning up less than fifteen minutes in advance may not be able to travel.

 

[dimdav]

Thanks. As far as I can tell, it was supposed to have been available for the Summer 2018 timetable, but since it launched late they are now aiming for Winter 2018/19. Since the winter service is generally just a single vessel, that might mean it has little do so and effectively enters service in Summer 2019.

More problems being reported with these ferries.

It looks like some of the secrecy is breaking around the project now with McColls frustration at having to pick up the costs for the modifications so even without penalty clauses it seems(reading between the lines) that the yards ongoing viability is at stake and the ferries still wont be delivered until next summer.

What is going on? Anyone got any more info?

Todays developments seems fairly damning(well as much as he can afford to be...) from McColl

"We have incurred significantly higher costs in the work we've had to do on these ferries, and we've been engaging with CMAL to discuss these costs.
Maybe the best way to put it is that we've been frustrated in these discussions. We've been discussing it for over a year, and we have been funding that, so it's been using a lot of our capital. We've been funding it solely."

He added: "Our view is that these have been genuine changes that have had to be made to the work we've been doing, and they're changes that ought to be incurred by the buyer. I believe that perhaps more design development work could have been done prior to the invitation to tender going out, rather than dealing with multiple things that are arising as we got into the build process. But we're working diligently through that."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-45340128

 

[JumbleDuck]

More problems being reported with these ferries.

Yes, it all seems to be a bit of a mess. I'm not sure about Mr McColl's complaint that more design work should have been done first. The team at Ferguson's would have known exactly how much work had been done when they tendered to build and should have spotted loose ends.

That said, perhaps a better cost-sharing agreement could have been signed in view of the pioneering nature of the work, but it's as much Gerguson's fault as CMAL's if that didn't happen.

 

[Aja]

Has the Honourable Mr McColl not fallen out of love with the SNP government?

Donald

 

[dimdav]

Has the Honourable Mr McColl not fallen out of love with the SNP government?

Donald

Don't think so, he reversed his position on indy in 2015 but nothing has changed since then.

Ps I'm trying really, really hard to keep politics out of this as long as possible and hope it can all be explained in other more mundane ways.