Renfrew Ferry

The Renfrew Ferry is a passenger ferry service linking the north and south banks of the River Clyde in Scotland. The service, operated by Clydelink without subsidy, crosses between Renfrew and Yoker, close to Glasgow City Centre and the last Clyde crossing this far upstream.

Originally the service operated from King's Inch, further upstream on land which is now the site of the Braehead Shopping Centre, but moved around two hundred years ago to serve better the town of Renfrew. In the 1960s 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 tunnelling and bridging are difficult, has survived. It is the last operational Clyde crossing this far upstream, and the closest to Glasgow City Centre.

The service was passenger-only until the car boom of the 1950s and 1960s, when it became a car ferry. With the opening of the Clyde Tunnel just two miles upstream, which allowed faster crossings, the car service ceased in May 1984. Now, due to expanding car use, the tunnel and surrounding routes are themselves frequently congested. One of the old car ferries can still be seen moored on the Broomielaw, in the city centre of Glasgow, where it is a popular entertainment and nightspot, also called the Renfrew Ferry.

From 1984 until 2010 Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) operated two passenger-only boats, appropriately named the MV Renfrew Rose and Yoker Swan. In 2007, a study was started to see the feasibility of replacing the ferry with a bridge, which would allow 24-hour crossings. It would be necessary for the bridge to have a large clearance or be able to open, due to shipbuilding and other river navigation upstream on the River Clyde. The study found that a replacement bridge would cost around fifteen million pounds.

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