Hovercraft trials on the Clyde

It was interesting to see that three days of hovercraft trials have taken place on the Clyde this week.

BBC Scotland News video report

With a vague memory of having seen the original service, and also noting the tests being carried out on a hoverbarge (not destined for use on the Clyde) on the local waters, it’s indicative that there is still some room for thinking ‘outside the box’, and is coincident with similar trials that have already taken place over on the Firth of Forth.

As with the original Clyde hovercraft service of the 1960s, the Forth service looks as if it is already descending into a morass of name-calling an blame allocation as the various parties involved argue about who is going to foot the various costs of setting things up, and what grants, subsidies, initiatives and the like are going to be on offer. This service looks as if it years away from becoming reality, two years has been mentioned.

Coincidentally, the news report mentions a potential timescale of two years for getting a Clyde service underway too, so we can probably take that with a large pinch of salt and not hold our breath waiting, since it’s nowhere near as far advanced as the Forth project.

The first service only managed to limp along for a year before what amounts to little more than politics strangled it, and I wonder of this one has any more chance of success.

The project is a combined effort involving Clydefast and Glasgow City Council.

I know folk in Glasgow have little time for the council in regard to projects and planning, so that’s not a good start, and if you look into the past, you’ll find that Clydefast kept everyone waiting for new, fast ferries to arrive on the Clyde, even suggesting that the vessels were so close to delivery that they were organising the temporary use of other vessels, just to get things started. The replacements never arrived. The fast ferries never arrived.

I’ve gone from interested to glum in 340 words.