Hovercraft at Portobello
Originally uploaded by rongorongo
An experiment took place in Scotland this year to test the waters for a proposed new transport route. In July a transport company conducted a two week trial provision of a hovercraft ferry service between Kirkcaldy and Portobello across the Forth estuary near Edinburgh. The results proved a demand beyond all expectation. The hovercraft seats 130 passengers and at peak times there were queues waiting at least 2 and a half hours to board.
More than 16,000 passengers used the service in the first week of the trial on a total of 148 trips. Most trips were full and the craft made the crossing in an average of less than 18 minutes – two minutes faster than its scheduled journey time. So does this mean that the service will go in to operation for real? Not necessarily. It has to be taken into account that this was a particularly busy time of year and that the Forth railway bridge was out of action for engineering works during some of the trial.
Forthfast: Embarkation at Portobello originally uploaded by rongorongo
The actual hovercraft used for the trial was one which has been used normally to ply the trade between Ryde on the Isle of Wight and Southsea across the Solent.
Why do I blog this?
It links in with a previous story about the proposed ferry route across the Bristol Channel and it demonstrates a serious type of real world research on a major scale.
Andy Roberts is a writer who initiated DARnet. Contact me on aroberts@gmail.com or @aroberts on twitter
This is such a great idea. I’d have loved it when I lived in Fife! In fact I really want them to do it again so I can go on it!