Will ferries between Scottish islands be replaced by tunnels?

Residents in a remote part of Scotland are upping pressure on authorities to create tunnel routes between their islands, providing a faster, more reliable way of commuting than existing ferry routes.

Shetland is an archipelago of over 100 islands, 170 km from mainland Scotland and closer to Norway than to the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Only 16 of the islands are inhabited, the largest being The Mainland. There are nine inter-island ferry services that carry 750,000 passengers per year between The Mainland and smaller islands like Whalsay, Foula, Fair Isle, Skerries, and Papa Stour. Services are specified by Transport Partnership for Shetland and operated in conjunction with the Shetland Islands Council.

But some islanders are increasingly sick of sea crossings that are not dependable in poor weather and that make journeys slower even on fair days. Local authorities also recognise that the ferries are, in the words of New Civil Engineer, “operating beyond their working life” and “a significant contributor to local carbon emissions.”

As a result, the Shetland Islands Council has recently brought in consultants Cowi and Stantec to help assess the case for an infrastructure project that the chair of the council’s Environment and Transport Committee, Moraig Lyall, has said “could be the most significant project the Council has undertaken in its 50-year history.”

In the same statement on the Shetland government website, Lyall announced that three firms had been appointed to develop a Fixed Link Model (FLM), using the Yell Sound between The Mainland and Yell islands, as a “test case.”

The companies involved are Norway-headquartered LNS, which has successfully delivered projects in Faroe, Greenland, Hong Kong, Iceland, and Norway; BEMO Tunnelling, of the Metrostav Group, described as “one of Europe’s leading tunnelling and civil engineering contractors”; and one of Europe’s largest construction groups, STRABAG.

For beleaguered islanders, it sounds promising. Alec Priest, a worker at Sullom Voe oil terminal on Shetland, told The Guardian the 55 km commute from his home at Baltasound on Unst to Sullom Voe is a three-and-a-half-hour round trip, including four ferries. He called it “a colossal waste of time,” and added: “During the winter, if you have any gales, there’s a good chance the ferries will stop. It does make you cautious.” Tunnels could shave more than an hour each way from his trip.

@orkneyexcursions The ferry from Stromness to Scrabster takes 90 minutes. The boat is called The Hamnavoe, it is part of the Northlink fleet. #orkney #orkneyislands #visitorkney #visitorkneyislands #orkneyholidays #visitscotland #orkneytouristguide #orkneyexcursions #ferry #hamnavoe#northlinkferries @VisitScotland @NorthLink Ferries ♬ оригинальный звук – K.S.Project

Proponents like Priest argue that speeding up journeys would be a major economic and social boost to the islands, helping carers reach vulnerable populations, making work more efficient and increasing GDP per person, attracting residents and lowering the average age, and bringing perishable food and products to market more quickly. They also point to other places such Faroe Islands, Norway, and Denmark, where the case for tunnels was accepted and acted upon years ago. Andy Sloan, executive vice president of Cowi, said: “We know that tunnels are entirely feasible from an engineering perspective.”

Locals have said they are prepared to pay tolls to contribute to the estimated cost of tunnels, which Priest puts at between £115 million and £135 million (€132.8 million and €155.9 million). For comparison, replacing the aging fleet of ferries would require almost as much—around £100 million (€115 million), as well as an ongoing £7 million (around €8 million) a year in subsidies.

Still, questions remain about whether the ferries need replacing anyway, to distribute traffic and prop up the perceived romance of the islands for tourists. Visitor spending was in excess of €57 million in both 2023 and 2024.

Ultimately, the case for tunnels is not yet cut and dried. Councillors are due to review the outline in 2026, and committee chair Lyall has cautioned: “though the Yell Sound crossing has been chosen for this modelling work, it does not mean it would be ‘first on the list’ for construction.”