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Information: Timetable and fare can be found on the
SPT Ferry Page. The Yoker Swan at Yoker |
The Renfrew to Yoker ferry provides a passenger-only ferry service across the 200m wide River Clyde between Renfrew on the south bank and Yoker on the north bank. Information about fares and operating times is set out on the right.
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There are two ferries available for use on the route, the Renfrew Swan and the Yoker Rose, though only one is usually in use at any given time. Both were built by McCrindle Shipbuilding Ltd of Ardrossan in 1984. Passengers board via a front ramp from concrete slipways originally built to support car ferry services.
On a fine day you can stay on the front deck and enjoy the views along the Clyde, which includes one of the Clyde's surviving shipyards as well as new housing developments where other shipyards once stood. On our last journey the highlight was the view of the BVT Surface Fleet shipyard at Scotstoun, complete with three new Type 45 destroyers for the Royal Navy in various stages of completion. On a driech day you can take advantage of the enclosed passenger cabin on the ferries.
 Waiting for the Ferry |
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 Passenger Cabin |
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 The Ferry Inn |
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 The Engine of the Tug "Clyde" |
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 BVT Surface Fleet Shipyard |
There are a couple of things passengers should bear in mind. Firstly, the ferry has no set timetable. During its period of operation it sails "on demand": you just turn up and go. If the ferry is on the other side of the river when you arrive the crew will see you and cross to pick you up. When boarding, it pays to take notice of the signs advising you stay in the middle of the slipway: other areas tend to become covered in algae because of the rise and fall of the tide, and can be very slippery. The ferry carries a supply of road grit which is spread to help ensure a good footing. You also need to carry the right change for the fare, as payment is made in a ticket machine on the ferry.
Ferries have been crossing the Clyde for millennia. Opinions differ about the history of this particular route. By some accounts there was a ferry operating between Renfrew and Clydebank, on the north bank a little downstream, as early as 1614. Another source suggests that a crossing a little upstream, between what is now Scotstoun and what is now the Breahead Retail Park, operated even earlier. Perhaps both of these early ferries existed.
The route in use today dates back at least 200 years, providing the shortest crossing serving Renfrew, which was becoming increasingly important at the time. Many other ferries also crossed the Clyde: as recently as the 1960s there were still ferries operating at Erskine, Whiteinch, Partick, Govan and Finnieston. The earliest ferries were little more than rowing boats. Later ferries were pulled across by hand using ropes or chains.
By the 1930s the boom in motor traffic had led to the introduction of a vehicle ferry between Renfrew and Yoker. In 1952 a new larger roll-on roll-off ferry was introduced. The Renfrew was a diesel electric ferry which hauled itself across the river using a submerged chain. She became more commonly known to her users as HMS Back & Furrit.
By the end of the 1970s the need for ferries across the Clyde had declined with the arrival of fixed links such as the Erskine and Kingston Bridges and the Clyde Tunnel. Most of the ferry services simply ceased. At Renfrew there remained a need to transport shipyard workers and others across the river, and because of the clearance that would be needed by river traffic, a bridge was not a practical alternative. The decision was therefore taken to replace the Renfrew with the two purpose built passenger ferries you see today, Renfrew Swan and the Yoker Rose. The Renfrew has gone on to a career as a "multi-purpose entertainment venue" and is now moored at Anderston Quay in the centre of Glasgow.
In 2007 there were press reports of the imminent demise of the Renfrew to Yoker ferry because of the amount of subsidy needed to keep it running: each of the 150,000 passenger journeys made each year costs twice as much in subsidy as it earns in fares. But when it turned out that a replacement footbridge would cost between £11 and £15 million (because of the high clearance still needed by river traffic) the decision was taken to retain the ferry service, though a search is under way for a replacement ferry which will cost less to operate and maintain than the rather aged vessels now used.
 On Board the Yoker Swan |
