Renfrew Ferry under threat
January 14, 2010 by Martin Graham
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) are holding a special budget meeting on 22 January to discuss the fate of the Renfrew Ferry. SPT operates the ferry service, which runs from Yoker on the North bank of the Clyde to Renfrew on the South. A ferry service has operated at the site for the past 500 years. A spokesman for SPT said: ‘SPT, like many other local government agencies and local councils, is facing severe financial problems. For next year’s budget we have to find savings of £2.5m. To that end we are looking at every line of our budget including our current subsidies to bus, Subway and ferry services. No final decisions have been made nor will be made until SPT’s special budget meeting on the 22nd of January.’ The ferry service subsidised with £430,000 funding per year, and the two boats currently in service, the Renfrew Rose and the Yoker Swan are coming to the end of their operational lives. The two boats have been in use since 1984. One ferry operates at any given time with the other held in reserve for periods of maintenance and repair. Each ferry can carry 50 passengers but rarely exceeds five people on one trip. There were around 140,000 passenger journeys on the ferry last year.
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