So the Hamnavoe has gone to Bergen to pick up 200 stranded holidaymakers, inconveniencing ten times as many travellers to Orkney while it does. It becomes clear that nobody from Scottish Government told the Orkney representatives (council and MSP included) that the Aberdeen lifeline service was being removed at the same time, and our Convener and MSP make it equally plain that they are not happy and would like a word with the transport minister. And in an ironic twist air travel opens up again- how many will take the Hamnavoe when it gets to Bergen?
The Scottish Governement could be seen to have handled this very badly, unless their intent is to diminish the Northlink lifeline service publicly.
There are reasonable grounds, it emerges, for using the Hamnavoe: the Northlink ferries are the only ones appropriately certificated to go across the North Sea with passengers; the Hjaltland was on refit; the Aberdeen-Shetland route was running full. These points should have been made clear in their press statement. Instead the lifeline is cut, without the agreement of those affected, with the implication that there is another service which says they can cope. Of course they would- this is a massive coup for Pentland Ferries, and a blow to our enviable situation where we have a service with guarantees and backup through Northlink, and one forbye, albeit less reliable, in the shape of Pentland Ferries.
Indeed the rationale for the whole rescue enterprise remains unclear- was there an overriding need to do this, when air routes were re-opening? Is repatriation of stranded British holidaymakers a devolved issue? Is there a hint of the political stunt about this?
With spending cuts on the Northern Isles ferries already on this side of the horizon we should be very worried about the Scottish Government's attitude to our services, and challenge any changes, and any assumptions of costs as well. It has been suggested that the Pentland Firth route is subsidised to the tune of £10M /year, but in P&O's day it was assumed that it was a cash cow that cross-subsidised the Aberdeen routes.
A back of the envelope calculation suggests a reality somewhere in between, closer to £5M /year subsidy, which is still £15,000 day. The very rough working is below so feel free to amend it, by commenting on this article. The fuel cost in particular is a big guess! But the key point is that the error bars are big and we should not accept that the running costs are as unreasonable as some may represent.
Meantime, there is some confusion regarding that day of the return of the Hamnavoe, with both Saturday and Friday having been announced, understandable to the extent that Stromness-Bergen-Aberdeen-Stromness is a new route (and I hope the daily papers aren't on this one). The latest news suggests Friday, and the Northlink website will notify any changes here. There is a possibility that after arriving in Aberdeen from Bergen, the Hamnavoe will do a freight and passenger run to Orkney from Aberdeen, rather than running up empty- which seems a good idea.
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Hamnavoe net running costs?
Average daily costs:
35 crew x 2 (week on, week off) at average of £250/day = £17,500
15 shore staff at average of £100/day = £1,500
Fuel costs = £4,000 *
Total: £23,000
Average daily income:
20 lorry trips at £100 a time = £2,000
80 car trips at £35 a time = £2,800
200 passengers at £15 a time = £3,000
Total: £7,800
Net: £15,200 /day
* based on six 40 km crossings, and the Hamnavoe travelling 30m per litre of fuel, at 50p per litre. The Aberdeen ferries travel 20m per litre at 16 knots, apparently.
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