Ferry passengers at Port Aldane will get a new waiting hall and a covered walk to the boats after councillors voted 11 to 4 on 13 September to back an £18.4 million rebuild of the North Quay terminal.

The terminal handled 612,000 passenger journeys in the year to March 2026, up 9 percent on the year before, according to the Aldane Port Authority.

The project will replace the passenger waiting hall, add a covered walkway to the berth and install 24 electric vehicle charging points in the terminal car park. The national Coastal Transport Fund will pay £11 million and the council £7.4 million from its capital reserves.

Construction is due to start in March 2027 and finish by October 2028. While the work goes on, the waiting hall will close and passengers will use a temporary hall on the South Quay, which the Port Authority says will have step-free access and open two weeks before the North Quay hall closes. Ferry timetables will not change, and the berth itself stays open throughout.

"The terminal has not been modernised since 1987," said Councillor Mara Ellison, cabinet member for transport. "This upgrade gives islanders and visitors a building fit for the next forty years."

The four councillors who voted against the plan said the council's share should be spent on road repairs instead.
