The bus company Stagecoach ran a cross-Forth hovercraft for a couple of weeks as a trial, to see if a regular service was viable. The idea was that buses would run throughout Fife to the hovercraft terminal. The passengers would then cross the Forth before getting on a bus on the southern shore, leaving just a short journey into Edinburgh city centre.
The scheme would have seen a lot of buses taken off the Forth Road Bridge, and possibly more car commuters using a quicker form of public transport.
The trial proved to be wildly popular as Edinburgh and Fife residents revelled in the novelty of it. Unfortunately, subsequent plans to run the hovercraft as a regular service have come to naught.
Firstly, Stagecoach wanted too much subsidy. Then they decided that while they were happy running the bus operation, they didn't want to run the hovercraft. And there it was left, stuck as one of those brilliant ideas which never quite came off.
Now, it looks like the hovercraft is finally dead in the water. Fife Council are to stop looking for an operator due to underwhelming demand from ferry companies, and Edinburgh Council can't afford the £1 million subsidy it would initially need.
Which is a shame. It's not often an innovative transport project which catches the public imagination comes along, and when they do we should be grabbing them with both hands.
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