By Aileen Robertson

THE SHETLAND businessman set to provide a ferry link between Rosyth, Zeebrugge and Norway yesterday poured cold water on the prospect of a replacement service being ready to go when Superfast stops sailing in a week.

John White, who is awaiting confirmation of funding from the European Marco Polo programme, said his proposal to provide freight and passenger services had hit frustrating delays.

On top of being appointed by the Norshukon project to link Rosyth with Kristiansund on the west coast of Norway, incorporating a service to Zeebrugge, Mr White is also hoping to secure a second vessel to provide more frequent journeys between Rosyth and Zeebrugge.

However, because of the wait for EU funding, the Norshukon link is unlikely to set sail until next month at the very earliest.

It is likely the additional Rosyth-Zeebrugge link will take much longer to establish because of a shortage of suitable boats.

Mr White said he had been in talks with another potential Rosyth ferry operator, the Dutch company Norfolkline.

“The intention was that we would both operate from Rosyth, in co-operation with each other,” he said.

“It is being seriously considered right now. But it’s the ship availability which is the big problem. Suitable vessels for the run aren’t available.

“We’ve come up with several vessels that meet all the Mediterranean rules but can’t be used on the UK route because of different classifications.”

He added that he could not speak for Norfolkline, and The Courier was unable to contact the company’s managing director yesterday for a comment.

Rising fuel costs were at the root of the problem, and contributed to Superfast’s demise at Rosyth, continued Mr White.

He said a 10-year-old boat would use approximately 100 tonnes of fuel to get from Rosyth to Zeebrugge and a new boat would take only 65 tonnes, but the new boats were still being built.

“It’s fuel efficiency. You saw what happened to Superfast,” he said.

“The biggest detriment to it all is the cost of fuel. If you continue to run a Blue Star vessel you’re facing making huge increases in the price of freight and passenger tickets just to make it viable.

“It’s an expensive operation.”

Meanwhile, Dunfermline East MSP Helen Eadie has asked the Scottish Government to take urgent action to avoid the “dire consequences” of Rosyth losing its ferry link to Europe.

Mrs Eadie has written to First Minister Alex Salmond, calling on the government to ensure a new service is in place when Attica pulls the Superfast service.

Mrs Eadie said, “I understand that the Norwegian and Flanders governments, amongst others, have given their full support and the Scottish Government seems to be conspicuous by its absence of having done so.

“I am informed that, in particular, unless ship deployments and any start-up funding support are made within the next few weeks, transport companies have said they will be forced to begin making alternative arrangements for Scottish freight movements, re-routing traffic via Humber, Haven, Dover etc—and ultimately resulting in reverse modal shift back to long-distance road transport on a large scale.

“It will be very difficult to alter such an outcome in future and, given the worsening difficulties of the road haulage sector, it would also be a highly retrograde step for the Scottish economy at this time.”

Mr Salmond replied, “I know that Forth Ports have been liaising very closely with the transport operators using the Rosyth-Zeebrugge service to ensure they are kept up to date with the progress of efforts to secure a replacement service.”

He said “sensitive” commercial discussions meant he could say “little more.”