Pete Bevington

15 August, 2007

FOUR shipping companies have expressed an interest in operating the proposed ro-pax ferry service between mid Norway, Shetland and the UK mainland.

The four firms will now be asked to submit pre-qualification tenders to the Norway/Shetland consortium behind the new NORSHUKON sea link between Scandinavia and northern Europe.

Moregruppen AS, a group of private and public interests from Kristiansund, have teamed up with Shetland Development Trust and the Shetland transport partnership ZetTrans to fund a £100,000 feasibility study into running a service between the Norwegian oil port, Lerwick and either Rosyth or Newcastle.

The Norwegians have spent three years planning the service to take European bound freight off the small Scandinavian roads and onto the "Motorway of the Sea", connecting with Belgium via the UK.

Shetland has bought into the idea with £50,000 towards the study and its expertise in shipping management and tendering. The islands are also helping the project access EU funding through the European TEN-T and Marco Polo programmes aimed at taking freight off roads.

Shetland has brought in shipping expert Bill Main of BM Consulting as project manager. Mr Main used to work for CalMac and was heavily involved in the tendering process for NorthLink when it won the northern isles contract from the Scottish Executive. Alf Baird of the Northern Maritime Corridor project is also involved as a consultant.

ZetTrans transport development manager Ken Duerden said they hoped to select a preferred bidder by October, after which they will work with the consortium to design a commercially operated service which should be self supporting.

ZetTrans chairman Allan Wishart said Shetland had a valuable role as a connection through NorthLink to Aberdeen. "We hope the study will show there could be enough trade generated to make it attractive to come to Shetland," he said.

Mr Wishart said he thought islanders had "no stomach" to see the local council invest heavily in another shipping company after pumping almost £4.5 million into Faroese Smyril Line, which now no longer visits the isles.