Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram says the new Mersey Ferry will be built at Cammell Laird in Wirral at a cost of £26m – and one of the existing ferries will be taken out of service permanently. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool city region’s Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram says the new Mersey Ferry will be built at a cost of £26m.
On Monday, LBN exclusively revealed the new vessel would be 100% built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. Last year it was initially announced the ferry would be partly built by Dutch shipbuilder Damen in partnership with Cammell Laird.
However, LBN understands this would have cost Liverpool City Region Combined Authority more than the £26m that it will now cost.
It is hoped the new ferry will be in service on the Mersey in the next couple of years. It will mean that one of the existing vessels – either Snowdrop or Royal Iris – will be permanently taken out of service.
It has yet to be decided which of the two will be retired. The ferry that survives the chop will receive a full refit at Cammell Laird.
Mr Rotheram met with Cammell Laird chief executive David McGinley at the shipyard on Wednesday morning to sign the deal. He also met with a number of apprentices whose jobs will be supported by this new contract.
Speaking afterwards the Metro Mayor said today’s announcement was “the culmination of my long-held dream of actually building a Mersey Ferry on the Mersey”. It will be the first new ferry built for more than 60 years.
Mr Rotheram originally put out a tender for the new vessel in December 2018. However, cost complications caused by the UK’s exit from the EU meant the project had to be put on hold in May 2021.
In March 2022 LBN exclusively revealed the project was back on. At that point the plan was that Cammell Laird would share the project with Dutch shipbuilding giant Damen. This approach caused some controversy with trade unions.
Mr Rotheram said today: “This ferry will be built on Merseyside for Merseysiders. This is great for the apprentices because they will have some security for their jobs.
“The ferries are synonymous with the Liverpool city region of course because of the famous song by Gerry Marsden. But they have been running for hundreds of years. We wanted to secure their future for the long term.
“At one point in the 1970s it looked like we were going to lose the ferries completely. What we have done now is make an important statement that they are a part of Liverpool life and we want to see them continue.”
Mr Rotheram said the ferry would be a “cleaner and greener” vessel, although it will initially run on diesel it will be future proofed so it can be easily retrofitted to use alternative methods of propulsion.”
He told LBN: “The new engines will be less polluting and the aim is to see if we can move over to new sources. For example, they are going to be hydrogen compatible.”
On which of the existing ferries will be preserved and which one retired, he added: “They will take the plates off to see which is the most corroded. We will go with the one that needs the least work.
“It is my ambition to build a second new ferry in the future and this new vessel will provide the blueprint for that.”
Cammell Laird have a long heritage with Mersey Ferries, having built 15 of the vessels dating back to 1836 as well as well as helping to maintain the current fleet.
David McGinley, chief executive of Cammell Laird parent group APCL Group, said: “We have always been a global business with a local heart.
“So it’s fitting that two things which are closely associated with the Mersey – ferries and Cammell Laird – should come together for this latest milestone in the rich maritime heritage of the area.
“It’s a point of pride that we built the last Mersey ferry to enter service and will be doing so again, cementing our place both in the rich history of the Mersey, but equally, in its future too.
“Our apprentices will be working on this project alongside the rest of our highly skilled workforce, and I know this project is something they’ll be equally proud to be involved in.”
There has been a ‘Ferry Across the Mersey’ for more than 800 years with the original service operated by the monks of Birkenhead Priory from a slipway on the Wirral side of the river still known as Monks Ferry.
For hundreds of years the ferries provided a vital commuter service between Liverpool and Wirral and were immortalised in the 1960s hit by Gerry and the Pacemakers called Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey.
It was also revealed today that a potential pay dispute at the Cammell Laird yard had now been settled. The company has now agreed a new pay deal with union leaders.