CalMac

[grantzer]

I would rather see essential maintenance carried out during a Calmac ferries annual overhaul period not it having to be withdrawn from service during the busy summer timetable with tourists planning to sail on the ferry having to sleep in their cars.
The one good thing to come out of this fiasco is that these tourists will see how the island residents are having to put up with a poor ferry service which is their ‘bridge to the mainland’ because CMAL have been starved of funding for new ferries by the SNP controlled Scottish Government until it is too late.

How is that good? Genuinely can't see how that helps residents

[islaydarkblue]

How is that good? Genuinely can't see how that helps residents

Bad publicity usually shames management into taking action to try to avoid the same thing happening again.
You might remember that a couple of years ago (pre Covid) during a period of heavy rain in the month of August there was yet another major landslide on the A83 Rest and be Thankful which was reported on the BBC national news and other news reports.
It was even discussed on Dundee Mad.
As a result of this bad publicity the Scottish Government had to take action and they drew up plans for 11 different solutions to bypass the continual landslides at the Rest and be Thankful instead of adopting their previous ‘sticking plaster’ solution to these continual landslides which have been happening on a regular basis since August 2004.
Tourists sleeping in their cars because they could not reach their destination for the summer holiday has made headline news which hopefully will shame the Scottish Government into taking action albeit over ten years late regarding their failure to keep their ferries on the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes up to date.
If I was one of these tourists I would never again book a holiday which involved sailing on a Calmac ferry to get to my holiday destination. In future I would take my summer holiday on the mainland of the U.K.
In my opinion the problems on the Uig Triangle ferry route could have been resolved as soon as the MV Hebrides ferry was removed from service the first time.
The MV Isle of Arran which sails from Ardrossan to Campbeltown route in the summer months and it is also the second ferry on the Ardrossan to Brodick route could have been redeployed to operate on the Uig triangle routes until the fire fighting equipment on the MV Hebrides ferry was fully repaired and the ferry was back in service.
However that was never going to happen as the members of the Arran ferry committee would have immediately contacted the BBC and other news outlets to bitterly complain.
Earlier this year the MV Caledonian Isles ferry was withdrawn from service for major repairs which from memory I think was to one of its main engines. It was also withdrawn from service on another recent occasion when it hit the pier at Brodick on Arran.
These withdrawals from service resulted in only the MV Isle of Arran operating on the Ardrossan to Brodick route which caused chaos on Arran.
No other Calmac ferry was diverted from another route to help out.
Calmac also made a hash of advising where the last filling station was for people driving from the Glasgow area to fill up their vehicles if they wanted to sail on the non bookable ferry route from Claonaig in Kintyre to Lochranza on Arran.
However that problem was promptly resolved thanks to an ‘eagle eyed’ member of the public who noticed the error and promptly emailed Calmac to advise that the filing station in Tarbert Loch Fyne had been closed for at least ten years. This resulted in vehicle drivers being advised to fill up their vehicles at the filling stations in Lochgilphead.
At the time there was a problem getting fuel tankers booked onto the remaining smaller ferry operating between Ardrossan and Brodick resulting in fuel shortages on Arran.