Strangford ferry has problem with ramp

Strangford ferry has problem with ramp

21 June 2017

THE new £6m Strangford ferry has encountered more technical problems.

Vehicles were forced to reverse off the MV Strangford II on Wednesday morning of last week after an issue developed with one of the entry ramps which had to be modified last year as a result of a design issue.

The new multi-million pound ferry has also suffered from engine problems since its introduction at the start of the year and the latest incident involving the ramp has prompted South Down MLA Colin McGrath to call for a full investigation.

He said “engineering questions remain” about the new ferry given the problems the vessel encountered last week.

“Questions have to be asked to Department for Infrastructure engineers who approved this vessel after one of the ramps did not work correctly last week. This resulted in the vessel having to turn and approach the slip in Portaferry in the opposite direction which resulted in drivers having to reverse off the boat,” said Mr McGrath.

“This ferry was much lauded by former Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard back in December as a great asset to the area, but now drivers have had to deal with the dangerous hazard of reversing off the vessel because one of the ramps would not open.”

Mr McGrath said there were initial problems with the ramps last December which delayed the introduction of the new vessel. He said for further problems to occur six months later, the question which has to be asked is how could departmental officials engage such a vessel with so many issues?

He continued: “Staff on the ferry work exceptionally hard and I am sure they were pretty embarrassed by this latest incident which I understand they managed with professionalism and excellent customer service. However, someone at departmental level will have examined the ferry’s blueprint and approved it but there are now obvious flaws with this vessel.”

Mr McGrath confirmed he has written to the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Infrastructure asking for last week’s incident to be fully investigated “to ensure that it doesn’t occur again.”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Infrastructure confirmed that on Wednesday of last week, during the ferry’s first sailing of the day to Portaferry, one ramp did not release from its locking pin.  

“The vessel was turned around at Portaferry to allow onboard vehicles to disembark. This allowed an engineer, who was directly on hand, to access the ramp and release the mechanism,” she explained.

“The Department apologises to passengers for the inconvenience that was caused. No sailings were missed and procedures have been put in place to prevent a reoccurrence.”

The spokeswoman said since the new MV Strangford II was brought into service in early February, the vessel has been very reliable having only four minor breakdowns and missing four out of 6,000 sailings. She said the service typically provides 99.8% availability on an annual basis.