Glasgow’s pioneering water bus ‘Pride o’ the Clyde’ is back on the River with its summer schedule.

Said boat master Alex Gilmour, ‘We planned to start the service at Easter but we had to have a new propeller shaft made and since it’s not the kind of thing you buy off the shelf, it took a few weeks to source a place in Scotland to have it made.’

Among the first passengers aboard at the Glasgow pontoon under Central Station Railway bridge on the Broomielaw was a happy group from Hollybush House in Ayrshire. The ex-service personnel were all staying at Hollybush House which is a respite and care centre dealing with combat stress. Spokesman Niall Brunton, of Ayrshire Recovery Network, said, ‘We’ve been looking forward to this trip and to seeing the scenery as we go down the river to Braehead.’

But the River Bus staff had to cut through the heavy chains at the gates to the pontoon to let their first city passengers of the season aboard. The lock had been changed the previous night when the area was used to rescue three people from the River.

See advert in this paper for details of the river bus schedule.