CalMac, battered by storms, battles on
If you had to find a metaphor to describe CalMac’s current troubles, you could not do better than last week, as the ferry operator was hit by storm after storm.
It’s been a rough season so far this year for CalMac, its crew, and its passengers. Last week was the fourth of ‘extreme and unprecedented weather disruptions’, said CalMac’s director of operations Robert Morrison, while its services struggled with ‘technical faults, overhaul and the continuing but lesser effects of Covid-19’.
Three storms hit in quick succession – Dudley’s 80mph gusts cancelled ferries on 20 out of 29 routes with Eunice affecting ferries to the Hebrides.
The West Coast escaped the worst of her hurricane force winds, recorded at 122mph on the Isle of Wight, but she still cancelled most Arran to Ardrossan sailings that day.
On Sunday, it was Franklin’s turn. Early Monday, Oban Airport’s lightning detector recorded 494 strikes between midnight to 3.30am, as a thunder cell tracked from Vatersay across Coll, Mull, and over Oban. A power cut on Mull led to a failure of the linkspan at Craignure port and the cancellation of a sailing. That morning, only six of CalMac’s 29 ferry routes were operating normally.
Bad weather continued to cancel ferries from Oban to Coll and Lochboisdale on Monday, and to Tiree and Castlebay on Tuesday. And here we blow again. Today Gladys glowers on the horizon.
The week did not get easier for CalMac when the Ferries Community Board (FCB), the voices for people served by the network, said all its problems presented a ‘real threat’ to island life.
The FCB’s chairman Angus Campbell said ‘the recent extent and duration of mechanical failures on multiple vessels’ are ‘hugely challenging’ for communities ‘struggling to access basic lifeline supplies and crucial services such as health and education’, and for ‘businesses trying hard to recover, or indeed simply continue to exist’.
‘This is unlikely to be a one-off with such an ageing fleet,’ he added. ‘This represents a real threat to our islands’ ability to retain and attract people, ensure services are sufficiently reliable, and at prices that permit viable communities, and thereby avoid depopulation.
‘It is essential we step up the efforts to find and buy new tonnage; and look to bring forward the new build programme.’
The summer is set to bring its own set of problems.
Islay Community Council Ferry Committee (ICCFC) met CalMac’s managing director Robbie Drummond on Tuesday February 8 to discuss its rejection of ICCFC’s proposals for the Islay summer 2022 timetable.
‘Updated distilleries’ forecasts are indicating major growth in output this year,’ explained the ICCFC’s vice chairman Jim Porteous. ‘Similarly, there is substantial growth in transport needs for a variety of construction projects on the island, with hundreds of site workers.
‘Even simply a modest growth assumption for tourists (compared with the last pre-Covid year of 2019) will amount to a staggering 25 per cent increase in overall ferry traffic, compared with 2021.
‘This could not be accommodated within a repeat of the 2021 ferry timetable. Yet that is all that has been offered for 2022 and a range of potential options to improve capacity have so far been rejected.’
The meeting agreed that CalMac, Transport Scotland and the ICCFC should work together, urgently, to seek possible solutions, such as additional sailings, and a separate ‘freight boat’ to assist during peaks. ‘It was acknowledged Islay is facing truly exceptional growth,’ Mr Porteous said.
Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd, which owns CalMac’s ferries, hopes a deal to build two new Islay vessels can be signed off in March, the ICCFC told last week’s Islay Community Council.
‘It is essential we step up the efforts to find and buy new tonnage.’