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I would rather see essential maintenance carried out during a Calmac ferries annual overhaul period not it having to be withdrawn from service during the busy summer timetable with tourists planning to sail on the ferry having to sleep in their cars.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]

Do you know what the protections they asked for were? You just have to look at the rail franchise system to see the problems that using the government as the customer causes. I think there may be a completely different mindset needed for our public transport system both ferries and trains. Kicking the SNP and Greens may be completely counter productive and be harming their ability to strike fair deals on wages and conditions that would ultimately benefit moaning customers who live on Islay!
Perhaps if you fired bullets at the operating companies rather than the politicians who should be working on the general publics behave, you might have more success.

I do not know what protections Serco were asking for but I suspect that they might have been asking for a rebate on the price they were paying to operate the contract if the Scottish Government owned ferries kept breaking down because the Scottish Government were failing to keep their ferry fleet operating on the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes up to date. This was back in 2016 several months before the Scottish Government were to announce who had won the contract to operate the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes on behalf of Transport Scotland.
This tendering process had to be introduced back in the early 2000’s as a result of EU rules.
My wife and I were present at a public meeting in the Gaelic College on Islay where the new ferry for Islay was being discussed and the new operating contract for the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes which was to be introduced in a couple of years as a result of EU rules..
A maritime expert at the meeting (not me!) stated that there was nothing to prevent (at that time) for the management of an operating company to employ a Filipino crew who would be happy to be paid 30% of the wages paid to the Calmac crews and six weeks holiday per annum.
This maritime expert also informed the members of the public at the meeting that Calmac crews on the car ferries work 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off which results in them only working 23 weeks per year once statutory annual leave and public holidays are taken into account.
He also told the meeting that the master (captain) of the car ferry only had to have an EU ticket to operate the ferry.
I have never forgotten this information.
In the event one by one companies who had expressed an interest withdrew before the bidding started leaving Calmac as the only bidding company (bidco) left.
That is why the fares on the Calmac ferries are high.
They could be a lot lower for island residents on the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes if Scottish Government used the same ferry fare structure as Serco use on the Northlink sailings.
About 8 years ago I was told by a Calmac pier manager that the Transport Scotland operating contract for the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes is basically the same as the operating contract on the Northlink sailings but the Scottish Government continue to persist with their ‘flagship’ one size fits all RET system.
It has been well documented that it is ridiculous that tourists from all over the world pay the same fare on the Calmac ferries as local island residents.
This is not the case on Northlink sailings.

[Deeranged]

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.

That's all well and good, and I'm certain everyone involved would prefer all maintenance to be completed during scheduled servicing down time. Unfortunately though it just doesn't work like that and when a ***** safety system becomes inoperable the vessel has to be withdrawn from service and essential maintenance carried out.

The potential option to sleeping in their cars for the tourists is burning to death at sea - seems the lesser of two evils to be fair.

[Deeranged]

That's all well and good, and I'm certain everyone involved would prefer all maintenance to be completed during scheduled servicing down time. Unfortunately though it just doesn't work like that and when a ***** safety system becomes inoperable the vessel has to be withdrawn from service and essential maintenance carried out. The potential of not doing so doesn't bear thinking about.

The potential option to sleeping in their cars for the tourists is burning to death at sea - seems the lesser of two evils to be fair.

No idea why the word 'v i t a l' would be starred out.

[BCram]

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.

I think you are right in believing that the problems with ferries to Islay is going escalate, and that will bring some changes to the way these matters are being handled by the SNP and Greens. For example could it be shown that the engines which were chosen and seem to be problematical, were chosen as a result of Green MSP involvement in the procurement process? There might be some value for the SNP and Calmac in properly apportioning the responsibility for this decision to the MSP Greens.

you get flak on here because you only worry about and talk about Islay but the Isle of Arran has possibly a greater profile and perhaps all the island communities need to work together to try to bring about a change in attitude and support for island communities. you would think that levelling up funding could easily be justified and a coordinated campaign might shake things up and break the cosy cycle of poor performance and underinvestment.

[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.

[islaydarkblue]

No idea why the word 'v i t a l' would be starred out.

There are a number of ordinary words ‘starred out’ on Mad for no particular reason.

[islaydarkblue]

I think you are right in believing that the problems with ferries to Islay is going escalate, and that will bring some changes to the way these matters are being handled by the SNP and Greens. For example could it be shown that the engines which were chosen and seem to be problematical, were chosen as a result of Green MSP involvement in the procurement process? There might be some value for the SNP and Calmac in properly apportioning the responsibility for this decision to the MSP Greens.

you get flak on here because you only worry about and talk about Islay but the Isle of Arran has possibly a greater profile and perhaps all the island communities need to work together to try to bring about a change in attitude and support for island communities. you would think that levelling up funding could easily be justified and a coordinated campaign might shake things up and break the cosy cycle of poor performance and underinvestment.

I have mentioned the Isle of Arran in a subsequent post.
You are possibly not aware that the two new ferries currently being built in Turkey do not fit any of the piers on the Kennacraig to Islay route plus the pier at Colonsay where the 99 metre long MV Clansman can safely dock. The two new ferries which are too wide, too long and their draught is too deep to dock at Kennacraig, Port Askaig and Port Ellen.
Their draught is also too deep to dock at Colonsay pier.
Work costing £16.4 million (2021) prices will have to be carried out at the piers before the new ferries which are due to come into service in late 2024 can sail on these routes.
Worse than that the design for these new Islay ferries is to become the standard for all new large car ferries sailing on the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes.
It will be interesting to see how many piers have to be altered at a considerable expense to allow new large car ferries to dock at them.
Most people are asking why CMAL did not instruct that the design for the new Islay ferries ensured that they fitted the current piers.
However that seems too obvious for the Scottish Government owned CMAL bosses who have been promoted to their level of incompetence.

[BCram]

I have mentioned the Isle of Arran in a subsequent post.
You are possibly not aware that the two new ferries currently being built in Turkey do not fit any of the piers on the Kennacraig to Islay route plus the pier at Colonsay where the 99 metre long MV Clansman can safely dock. The two new ferries which are too wide, too long and their draught is too deep to dock at Kennacraig, Port Askaig and Port Ellen.
Their draught is also too deep to dock at Colonsay pier.
Work costing £16.4 million (2021) prices will have to be carried out at the piers before the new ferries which are due to come into service in late 2024 can sail on these routes.
Worse than that the design for these new Islay ferries is to become the standard for all new large car ferries sailing on the Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes.
It will be interesting to see how many piers have to be altered at a considerable expense to allow new large car ferries to dock at them.
Most people are asking why CMAL did not instruct that the design for the new Islay ferries ensured that they fitted the current piers.
However that seems too obvious for the Scottish Government owned CMAL bosses who have been promoted to their level of incompetence.

Surely bigger ports to handle bigger ferries is the way forward. The RET formula for calculating fares is a combination of a fixed element (to ensure services remain sustainable and to cover fixed costs such as maintaining harbour infrastructure and vessels) and a rate per mile (calculated by Transport Scotland analysts using contemporary independent research by the RAC).

The RET formula is reviewed annually by Transport Scotland.

What I don't understand is why this system is unfair. It seems sensible but I am sure there must be a level of government subsidy as I don't believe that the ferries could be run solely on the income generated by the ferry users. Would be handy if someone could tell us the level of subsidy given to Calmac and relate that to the number of people who use the ferries.

[islaydarkblue]

Surely bigger ports to handle bigger ferries is the way forward. The RET formula for calculating fares is a combination of a fixed element (to ensure services remain sustainable and to cover fixed costs such as maintaining harbour infrastructure and vessels) and a rate per mile (calculated by Transport Scotland analysts using contemporary independent research by the RAC).

The RET formula is reviewed annually by Transport Scotland.

What I don't understand is why this system is unfair. It seems sensible but I am sure there must be a level of government subsidy as I don't believe that the ferries could be run solely on the income generated by the ferry users. Would be handy if someone could tell us the level of subsidy given to Calmac and relate that to the number of people who use the ferries.

I do not agree that bigger piers to handle bigger ships is the way forward for Calmac ferries.
Most island residents would prefer having a new ferry which fits the piers on their ferry route. Somebody has to pay for the projected £16.4 million (2021 prices) cost of these major alterations to the piers on the Kennacraig to Islay route and that will be partly through increased fares with the remainder paid by the Scottish taxpayers.
I know how the RET formula is calculated.
However shortly after it was introduced a Calmac pier manager told me that on some occasions the RET formula resulted in the fares being dearer than the existing Calmac fare.
He told me that in these cases the Scottish Government reduced the existing fare by 50p per sailing to make look like their ‘flagship’ RET scheme had reduced fares on every Calmac sailing.
Now to the reason why RET is unfair and the Scottish Government if they had a will could reduce the fares for island residents served by the Calmac Ferries.
I enclose details of the Islander Card scheme operated by Northlink Ferries which is available for all residents living on Orkney and Shetland including incoming workers who stay on either of these islands. I have known about the Islander Card scheme since December 2011 as I know someone who obtained a job with Shetland Islands Council and on their first day working for the Shetland Isles council they were given an application form to complete to obtain an Islander card for the Northlink ferries. https://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/booking-info/fares/
I suggest that you look at the normal fares for everyone and then look at the fares for the Orkney and Shetland residents who have an Islander Card.
Northlink ferries are able to issue the Islander Card because they do not use the ‘one size fits all’ RET scheme to calculate the fares on their ferries.
The Calmac pier manager previously told me that if the RET scheme was introduced on the Northlink ferry routes the cost of the fares would increase by about 40% and the Islander Card would have to be scrapped resulting in higher fares for Orkney and Shetland residents.
The Lib Dem MP for the Orkney and Shetland Isles is Alasdair Carmichael was born on Islay and he still has relatives living on Islay.
When RET was introduced on the Calmac Ferry routes he was shouting for RET to be introduced on the Northlink sailings.
Alasdair Carmichael is another politician who had not done his homework because the taxpayers pay for his ferry journeys on the Northlink sailings.
I remember reading in the media about Alasdair Carmichael’s demand that RET be immediately introduced on the Northlink sailings and I took the opportunity to have a letter published in the Islay Community newspaper The Ileach explaining the benefits of the Islander Card which gave Orkney and Shetland residents a substantial reduction on the listed price of ferry fares on the Northlink sailings.
I was hoping that some of Alasdair Carmichael’s relatives might advise him to give up demanding that the Scottish Government immediately introduce RET fares on the Northlink ferry sailings.
I do not know if my letter had the desired effect but I have not read Alasdair Carmichael mentioning anything about wanting RET introduced onto the Northlink Ferry routes for a long time. Perhaps the penny has dropped!