A WOMAN who slipped as she tried to board the Renfrew Ferry has called for better safety on the route.

Karen Cochrane said the slipway at the end of Yoker Ferry Road was like a “sheet of ice” because of the build-up of silt and should be cleared daily as it once was.

She banged her head and was covered in mud as she tried to go to work.

The 40-year-old Yoker resident said she was also concerned about the number of hours the ferry operator appeared to be working without breaks.

Karen told the Post: “Thankfully I was not injured but if it was an elderly person, they could have been.

“Health and safety on that ferry is ridiculous. It was like a sheet of ice just from a build-up of silt.

“It just needs to go over it with a squeegie.”

Karen was going to work in Renfrew around 6.30am but after her fall she had to return home because she was covered in mud.

She said: “By the time I got up, the ferry operator asked if I was okay. When I went back down, he helped me on.

“They need more staff. Someone should be there cleaning silt off the slipway – it stopped quite a while ago.

“It used to be done quite regularly. There are cobbles as well, which are slippy.”

The ferry was temporarily suspended last summer without an official explanation from the operators, Clydelink Ltd, who have run the service without financial support since the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport withdrew its subsidy for the route in 2010.

At the time, some claimed the closure was down to staff holidays while others were led to believe it was mechanical problems, leading to more passenger confusion.

Earlier this year Clydelink was stripped of the contract to run another Clyde ferry route – the subsidised service between Gourock and Kilcreggan.

Clydelink had not responded to requests from the Post for comment as this issue went to press.