Sailing into an uncertain future

Ditto for ferries: no matter how fast a vessel will get you from Scotland to Ireland, if vehicles have to negotiate a horrendously tortuous road to get to stage one, drivers will quickly subscribe to the Think Twice brigade, and look for a more accessible terminal.

Brussels calls the A75 Gretna-Stranraer road the E18. People in Galloway call it the ''goat track''. It is an exasperatingly deficient road to the shortest crossings to Ireland.

Campaigners for a dual carriageway stress that it is

the only Scottish component of the Ireland-UK-Benelux road upgrading project under consideration by the European Parliament.

One person in eight in the Stranraer area owes his livelihood to the ferries. They inject #8m a year into the economy of Wigtownshire, which has the ninth lowest gross domestic product in a league table of Scottish districts.

Mindful of these statistics, the Scottish Office, in its 100-page submission to Brussels three years ago on how #37m

of European Objective 5(b) money might be spent, stated: ''The section of the A75 between Stranraer and Newton Stewart is seriously sub-standard and acts as a disincentive to new industrial investment in the area.

''Public transport provision is often less than adequate. Rail services to Stranraer have been steadily downgraded over recent years. The future of all rail services in the region remains uncertain.''

Dumfries and Galloway Council's new draft structure plan warns that the A75

must be upgraded to dual

carriageway and high-

capacity single carriageway

to reflect its national and

international role.

Ferry jobs are now on the line. P & O European Ferries, which operates from Cairnryan to Larne, is negotiating with unions to shed as many as 40 and possibly up to 100

jobs as part of a ''streamlining'' process.

The company's two freight vessels will make two round trips per working day instead of three, and passenger capa-cities will be reduced from

610 to around 300 during off-peak months.

Denis Grattan, P & O's public relations officer based in Larne, says: ''The changes

are being made against a

background of very stiff

competition. Costs are the same whether loads are full

or empty.

''Good access to ports is essential and we would support any moves to upgrade the A75. We are also lobbying on the Irish side to have improvements to the A8 Larne to Belfast road.''

Grattan speaks of a growing number of crossings, and of a ceasefire in Northern Ireland which came too late this year to boost trade.

In contrast to the ''goat track'', Holyhead, the Welsh gateway to Dublin, benefits from the M6-A55 fast-link between Chester and North Wales, which has had around #700m spent on it in recent years; many hauliers based roughly the same distance between Stranraer and Holyhead would logically opt for the better access.

There are crossings to Belfast from Ardrossan, Fleetwood, Heysham, and Liverpool. There are crossings to Dublin from Liverpool and Holyhead. Rosslare connects to both Fishguard

and Pembroke; Cork connects to Swansea.

Last July Sea Containers introduced a ferry service from Campbeltown to Ballycastle, and two companies - the Merseyside Docks and Harbour Company, and Edinburgh-based Forth Ports - are planning roll-on, roll-off ferries on Merseyside.

''There is a lot of shipping, but the cake is not getting

any bigger,'' comments Dennis Grattan. ''The operators to the South of Ireland have introduced more attractive rates.

''We are expecting overall trade to be down quite a bit on last year when, during the ceasefire, the passenger side here was up 21%.

''Last year 46% of passengers were from the mainland. This year it looks like 14 to 15% because of the deterioration of the ceasefire.

''There have always been an awful lot more people travelling out of Northern Ireland for a break than those going in from Scotland. That was as near to 50-50 as we have got.''

Stena Line, which operates from Stranraer to Belfast,

saw car volumes fall by 8% during the first six months

of 1997 and blamed ''the Troubles in the province'' for having a negative effect on travel from Scotland.

''Competition has hardened in the Irish Sea due to the introduction of new tonnage

by our competitors and recently opened routes,'' states a report from the parent company in Sweden.

Sue Kirk, its UK-based public relations manager, played down comments about the Holyhead access being far quicker, saying the final

half-hour of the journey (across Anglesey) was single-carriageway.

''Hauliers will find the best route for them, and better access to Stranraer would probably improve traffic, al-though freight is up on the first six months compared with last year,'' she says.

Stena Line is reticent about the internal review which is being undertaken of the four companies within the group. It will not be drawn on possible job losses on the North

Channel routes, but Sue

Kirk confirms that, if the proposed withdrawal of duty-free goods went ahead in 1999, it would have a major effect

on operations.

''Duty-free accounts for 25% of our revenue on the routes where it is available,'' she says. ''We are fighting to have it retained.''

Ironically, a #20m European-assisted investment package on ferry facilities at Loch Ryan was announced in March 1996, and much of the work has been completed.

However, Alasdair Morgan, MP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, says: ''Time is

running out for European assistance for the A75, and the Government has shelved all but a small number of road projects pending a review.

''A university report showed that North Wales benefited from the A55 improvements. There is also the promise of improvements on Anglesey. The A75 must be upgraded both for the good of the

ferry operations and for the general prosperity of Dumfries and Galloway.''