By Richard Johnstone

The Group Chief Executive of Forth Ports has said that the company is exploring the possibility of expanding the recently announced reinstatement of the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry service to the Baltic.

First Minister Alex Salmond announced last month that ferry operator Norfolkline would take over the service in Spring 2009, following the previous operator, Superfast, pulling out of the route on 13 September.

Speaking to Holyrood, Charles Hammond, Forth Ports' Group Chief Executive, said that the pullout by Superfast “wasn’t a great surprise to us”, as while the service ran with only one ship, “clearly anything that runs on one vessel is going to be vulnerable” to future changes.

He said that one way round this is to “triangulate” the service, by having the service call at three ports.

Hammond said that they were exploring the possibility of expanding the service. He said: “One of the things we’ve started to work on is, is there a triangular link with anywhere in the Baltic, where Norfolkline have a presence as well, so we develop and build on the service. Clearly anything that runs one vessel is going to be vulnerable, and sometimes triangulations with more than one port and involving two vessels is much more robust.”

Responding to the news, Alex Macaulay, the partnership director of SEStran, the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership, whose partnership area includes the Forth Ports ferry terminal in Rosyth, said that there’s a “lot of common sense” in looking at a triangulation strategy

He said: “It seems sensible to me to look at all the opportunities to safeguard a single vessel operator. One of the benefits of Norfolkline taking over is they do have services to other ports in the UK and Europe so if they can combine the Rosyth service with other ports in Europe then it’s only to the benefit of the Scottish economy to strengthen the service.”