IT will not have escaped your notice that the Queensferry Crossing has been the subject of controversy once again. It was shut for four hours last Friday morning after patrol staff noticed ice falling from the cables, posing an obvious danger to traffic, and will be closed overnight on Saturday to test to test an emergency diversion – motorists will be diverted via the Kincardine Bridge until about 8am on Sunday. There is talk that the old Forth Road Bridge could yet be used as an alternative.
But it could all have been very different. In July, 2007, before the new fixed link across the Forth was built, Sir Brian Souter's transport giant Stagecoach launched a two-week trial of a hovercraft service between Kirkcaldy and Portobello. The experiment involved a 92ft BHT130 hovercraft which could carry up to 130 passengers, making the crossing in around 20 minutes – £4.50 for a return ticket. Our picture shows the Forthcraft vessel on the beach at Portobello.
More than 30,000 passengers used the service, with Stagecoach ready to invest around £14 million to keep its dream afloat. The project was scuppered, however, when City of Edinburgh Council refused planning permission to construct a hovercraft terminal at Portobello.
Scotland has a bit of history when it comes to hovercraft. They have been trialled extensively over the past 60 years or so.
Clyde Hover Ferries ran a service to the main resorts along the Clyde coast in 1965-66, but the venture ran up huge losses. And Caledonian MacBrayne ran a service between Largs and Millport from 1979-72. Technical and financial issues, combined with complaints from passengers over journeys being uncomfortable even in relatively calm conditions, put paid to that.
We built our own, too – the picture above shows a hovercraft constructed by Denny's in Dumbarton grabbing public attention in Loch Long in the early 1960s. The firm's D2 Hovercraft was used in a short-lived, experimental sightseeing service on the Thames in London. Denny's went into liquidation in September, 1963.
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