Flights to Barra under threat?
The Times are reporting that Loganair may not bid for the next round of route franchises as the cost of keeping the Twin Otters maintained and in the air is proving to be too high.
With replacements for the Twin Otter being built by Viking Air but unlikely to be available before 2015, the prospects look bleak unless a different approach is taken.
The ball is firmly back in the court of the Scottish Government to develop a new tendering structure if they want to see the service continue, and with the Chair of the Transportation Committee being a Barra resident, I expect the Council to make their position clear and forthright next month.
Without doubt this issue will also be an important factor at the coming election, and something I will return to over the next year.
3 comments:
Angus, The total lack of comment, since this blog was posted, demonstrates the total apathy (ignorance?) that your regulars have of anything south of the Clisham.
Perhaps the SCP could grab this one and then hail themselves as the saviour, collecting a few votes in the process.
Re 12.25
Oh, don't be so chippy!
What can we say yet about this one? North of the Clisham, we wait, watch and wonder - and hope that this will not come to be.
Rest assured, however. We are on your side.
Well, from the perspective from the south of the Southern Isles it is not so much apathy but more a case of recognition that the Comhairle operate on a two tier system.
A) Stornoway and bits of Lewis.
B) The Clisham southwards. In fact the more south you go the more likely you are to be entirely ignored by CNE.
I could have a general rant at the ineptitude, wholesale squandering of public money, and empire building, but that would be only too easy.
What is of concern is that the transport links in the southern isles are now becoming unacceptable, a situation which has been engineered by the misdirection of funding for infrastructure projects.
Take for instance the Uig road, It has been well built and no doubt serves this community well. However, quite how the spending of the roads budget on this particular project while parts of the spinal route in the southern isles remains single track is completely unnacceptable.
There are a couple of areas which are worthy of mention
(A) The switching between single track and two way between the Carinish cattlegrid and Grimsay.
(B) Same problem between Iochdar junction and Lochcarnan.
Between them, over a total stretch of about 2 miles the road changes from single to double about 12 times.
Similar problem between Polochar junction and the Eriskay causeway which becomes a race track for the ferry traffic.
Will these issues only be addressed when there is a fatal accident? (there have already been a few near misses) So when we see the new black top stretching into the wilderness in Lewis and the community in the southern isles dreading an almost inevitable tragedy, is it a wonder that we have become indifferent to any new threats to the transport infrastructure.
Long term strategic thinking by the council? .... expletives deleted
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