Renfrew Ferry

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The Renfrew Ferry is a ferry service in Scotland linking the North and South banks of the River Clyde between the area of Yoker in Glasgow and the town of Renfrew in Renfrewshire. It is the last Clyde Crossing this far upsteam to remain operational, and is the closest to the City Centre of Glasgow.

It has served it's current location for the last 200 years, and is operated by Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT), using 2 passenger only boats- the appropriately named Renfrew Rose and Yoker Swan.

The distance of the crossing is only 200 metres from the graded slipways on both sides, and as thus does not operate to a timetable as crews can observe passengers waiting and provide a service when necessary. As a result it operates on demand between 0630 to 2130 Mon-Sat and 1000-1830 on Sundays. Fares are £1 per crossing for adults and 50p for children. Holders of SPT tickets- ZoneCard with zones R3 or G3 and G8, and Scottish concession card holders can travel free.

[edit] History

Originally the service operated from King's Inch, further downstream on land which is now the site of the Braehead Shopping Centre, but moved around 200 years ago to better serve the town of Renfrew. Originally the service was passenger only however during the car boom years of the 1950's and 1960's it became a car ferry service. However with the opening of the Clyde Tunnel just 2 miles up stream which allowed faster crossings the car service was deemed surplus to requirements and ceased in the mid 80's. Current congestion levels on this and other car crossings however have made the claim of faster journeys seem ironic! The car ferry is now moored in the city centre of Glasgow where it is the popular entertainment and nightspot also called the Renfrew Ferry.

In the 1960's there were many other crossings operating close to the Renfrew Ferry, mainly serving the dominant shipyards of the Clyde. The Erskine, Whiteinch, Partick, Govan and Finnieston ferries have all stopped providing the services as bridges and tunnels replaced them, but the Renfrew Ferry being at a point where both tunneling and bridging is difficult has survived.

With the opening of the nearby Braehead Shopping Centre, and the current residential development of Ferry Village and the new ski and Cinema centre Xscape ski centre being built nearby it is expected that the Renfrew Ferry will see a resurgence in popularity, however it still carries around 200,000 passengers a year. It has also been mooted that a ferry could service the Braehead centre on a timetable either every 30 or 60 minutes. This, however has yet to be started. The Renfrew Ferry is also a bus terminus of the Arriva 69 service from Paisley Royal Alexandra Hospital via Renfrew and has a large number of services serving the Dumbarton Road from places such as Helensburgh, Clydebank and Balloch highlight that it serves a much larger area than just the immediate population around the ferry.