Failing ferries cost £275,000 in payouts

SCOTLAND’S state-owned ferry operator has paid out a record amount to customers hit by delays and cancelled sailings due to breakdowns in its ageing fleet.

CalMac’s compensation payments rose five-fold in the space of a year to £275,000 with growing frustration among dozens of Hebridean and Firth of Clyde communities.

It comes amid the deepening scandal over two ships that were to have been ready by 2018 but will now not be delivered until 2023 – at a cost more than double the original £97million price.

SNP ministers have been accused of ‘betraying’ islanders, with four of CalMac’s largest vessels over 30 years old. MV Isle of Cumbrae, was launched in 1976 and had been due to be replaced by 2016.

However, it continues to sail on the Tarbert to Portavadie route.

The oldest ship, the MV Isle of Arran, is 39 years old and serves the Ardrossan to Arran route, which is set to receive one of the two ferries still being built.

Officials have now revealed compensation for delays and cancellations caused by technical and operational problems hit £274,691 in 2021-22.

The bill, which does not include weather-related incidents, is up from £51,413 in 2020-21 and far exceeds the previous record payout of £176,929 in 2009-10.

The Scottish Conservatives, who obtained the figures in response to a freedom of information request, said the costs should serve as a ‘wake-up call’ to Nicola Sturgeon’s government.

Graham Simpson, the party’s transport spokesman, said last night: ‘Behind every one of these pay-outs is a real person who has missed work, essential medical appointments or other vital journeys as a result of breakdowns and technical problems. Our ferry fleet is falling apart as it sails – yet the SNP have failed to deliver their promised replacement programme.

‘Island communities have been abandoned and betrayed.’

CalMac has said its maintenance budget has risen by 67 per cent over the past five years and it expects to spend more than £34million this year. Robbie Drummond, managing director of CalMac, said: ‘The claim that there has been a five-fold increase in claims is misleading as it refers to a year in which Covid caused severe disruption to our services.

‘Covid travel restrictions meant that we were not operating full timetables or carrying the usual level of passengers.

‘We invested record sums in maintenance in 2021/22, and this will continue in the current year.’