{"id":666306,"date":"2026-06-30T15:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/666306\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T15:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T15:58:09","slug":"shetland-backs-transformative-1-5bn-plan-to-replace-ferries-with-tunnels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/666306\/","title":{"rendered":"Shetland backs &#8216;transformative&#8217; \u00a31.5bn plan to replace ferries with tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Councillors have backed initial plans to connect some of Shetland&#8217;s islands with undersea tunnels, which could be in place within eight years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A feasibility study proposed replacing ageing ferries with tunnels from Shetland&#8217;s mainland to Yell and from Yell to Unst, describing them as &#8220;economically transformative&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Two more tunnels, to the islands of Whalsay and Bressay, could follow under the plans &#8211; which it is estimated could cost \u00a31.5bn. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Council leaders say the tunnels would be cheaper than building new ferries and replacing harbours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At a meeting in Lerwick on Tuesday, councillors approved exploring funding options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Council chief executive Maggie Sandison said the project was not going to be easy, but she thought pursuing a funding solution was the &#8220;right thing to do&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This could come from a mixture of private investment, public subsidy and borrowing, alongside tolls to cover maintenance costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councillors have backed initial plans to connect some of Shetland&#8217;s islands with undersea tunnels, which could be in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-666306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}