Shetland’s Plans to Connect the Islands

The Councillors of the Shetland Islands plan to build undersea tunnels that connect all the islands. After discussing whether to build these tunnels, they decided that the tunnels would save money in the long run, and they would be completed within 8 years.

The Shetland Islands are North of Scotland. Although the Shetland Islands are made up of 100 islands, only 16 are inhabited.

Presently, ferries connect these 16 islands. However, over the past decade, costs for the ferry have increased. Some routes don’t meet the requirements of a ferry dock. According to the BBC, the council’s transport chairperson, Moraig Lyall, explained, “The system we have that has served us well for decades is now no longer able to do that…It doesn’t have the capacity, and we’re struggling with other things, like the ability to crew the system adequately.” Councillors who are? say that building an undersea tunnel would solve these problems.

Building undersea tunnels would cost about £1.5 billion. When asked by the BBC what she thought about the tunnel, the council’s transport chairperson, Moraig Lyall, said that it would be “cheaper in the long run.” A report showed that there were no impediments to building an undersea tunnel.

This project isn’t going to be easy. Despite the challenges, Council chief executive Maggie Sandison said that she thought that building the tunnels was the “right thing to do.”

The Shetland Islands actually got this idea from the Faroe Islands. They have had undersea tunnels connecting their islands since the 1960s.