Look to Norway for ferry service research

Sir, I am sure most of us are pleased CalMac retained the contract for west coast ferry services but what a wasteful and unnecessary exercise as it has been proved that the subsidy did not breach state aid rules.

As a nation, we now need to embark on a 20-year programme to provide Argyll and western isles with a modern ferry service.

If you visit Norway, you find a ferry system serving even very small communities, with a shuttle service leaving every 30 to 60 minutes for 18 hours a day.

As an example, the Fjord1 company provides for a one-hour crossing with a half-hourly service, with no booking required. It uses four ferries which shuttle providing 36 sailings a day.

In Scotland, the summer service for Ullapool- Stornoway is only two crossings a day, which can often be fully booked at the weekends in the summer and you need to arrive 45 minutes before departure. The Uig-Tarbet timetable only has one sailing two days of the week. In the winter, several Scottish islands do not even have a daily ferry service.

No wonder then that many of these islands are depopulating.

I suggest the Scottish Government sends the CalMac board, together with the transport minister and his senior civil servants, to Norway to research and plan for a modern ferry service for Scotland’s island communities. Dr Michael Foxley, former Leader of the Highland Council and board member of Mallaig Harbour Authority, 2 Achnaphubuil, by Fort William.