CalMac bosses quizzed by islanders at summit

Senior management from CalMac have been questioned over the ferry operator's performance by concerned islanders.

The roundtable meeting on Monday saw bosses at the company quizzed over cancellations to services and lengthy delays to new ships.

In 2023 CalMac services suffered a spate of problems, including the cancellation of services to South Uist for almost the whole of June.

The company also spent record sums of money on maintenance for its fleet.

The meeting was chaired by the UK government's minister for Scotland, John Lamont, who said it would provide an opportunity "for CalMac and Transport Scotland to engage more effectively with the people and communities they serve."

Mr Lamont told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme the lack of reliability of CalMac services were having a real impact on island communities.

He said: "It's very clear to me having had the discussions with local residents and also with CalMac, the lines of communications between ferry users, local communities, Transport Scotland and indeed CalMac have not been as good as they should be and the purpose of this is to air those views and also think about how the lines of communication might be improved moving forward."

Ferry services in Scotland are a devolved responsibility of the Scottish government, but in a statement the UK government said it had been "monitoring the situation" closely.

Transport Scotland stated that they were already "working hard" to address the concerns of islanders.

In September 2023 the ferry operator said its winter timetable, which runs until the end of March 2024, was one of the hardest it had ever had to produce.

Among the difficulties cited were the absence of its ferry MV Hebridean Isles, planned closures of ports at Uig in Skye and Port Ellen in Islay, and having to use multiple vessels on single routes.

CalMac has also faced lengthy delays to two new ferries due from the Ferguson Marine shipyard, the MV Glen Sannox and the MV Glen Rosa.

Originally scheduled to set sail in 2018, the MV Glen Sannox is now scheduled to be delivered to CalMac in late May.

In 2022/2023 a total of 4,620 sailings were cancelled for non weather-related reasons.

Business owners previously told BBC Scotland that there was a "ferry crisis in the west coast of Scotland."

CalMac chief executive Robbie Drummond and operations director Robert Morrison will attend the meeting, as will a number of representatives from groups such as CalMac Ferries Communities Board, Colonsay Lifeline Transport Group, Arran Ferry Action Group and Tobermory Harbour Association.

The outcome of the roundtable will then be fed into the UK government's Islands Forum, which debates solutions to problems for island communities across the UK.

A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said: "We are listening carefully to concerns raised by islanders and other ferry users and working hard to address these. Transport is devolved and the minister for transport regularly meets ferry community committees and has met the Ferry Communities Board in recent weeks."