System of ferry provision is fundamentally flawed

AS someone who was caught up on holiday in the Western Isles by the Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) industrial action and had to change arrangements for return to the mainland and then rebook them at five minutes’ notice when the strike was called off (“Workers call off stoppage after CalMac halts tendering process for routes”, The Herald, July 9), I have the utmost sympathy for those who live in island communities and have had their short summer livelihoods devastated.

However, I am not sure I would go along with Angus McCormack (Letters, July 13) when he suggests that the status quo with CalMac on Scottish ferry operations is okay. Sitting in Tarbert on a wet day allowed me to purchase and read Roy Pedersen’s excellent and comprehensive book Who pays the Ferryman?, which is subtitled The Great Scottish Ferries Swindle.

If CalMac is indeed calling a halt to the tendering process for routes and the First Minister supports this, it might give an opportunity to rethink the whole process.

That process should at at least take account of the many studies and reports over several decades that have pointed to other ways of travelling to island destinations, which provide a better service and do not seem to require the same level of massive subsidy.

Western Ferries and the Pentalina route to Orkney are classic examples of what can be done. This valuable information seems to have been sadly ignored in this country.

Unfortunately, the present system is largely locked into the use of large, expensive and fuel-hungry ships with correspondingly large crews to cope with maximum catering demand.

This might be the time to set some different goals that provide island communities with better services that actually generate more traffic and economic growth and which at the same time cost the taxpayer less in subsidy. Thomas G F Gray, 4A Auchinloch Road, Lenzie.