MSPs told lifeline Corran Ferry at breaking point

A lifeline Highland ferry service is at breaking point, Holyrood's transport committee has been told.

MSPs heard the Corran Ferry's two aging vessels need to be replaced within the next three to four years.

The boats - one 23 years old and the other 47 - are also too small to cope with demand from locals and visitors.

Highland Council plans run two new electric ferries on its service in Lochaber, but it has to find £62m to pay for them.

The ferry MV Corran operates on the five-minute crossing via a narrow stretch of Loch Linnhe.

It is the busiest single-vessel ferry route in Scotland and carries more than 270,000 cars each year.

People living in Fort William, Ardgour, Sunart, Ardnamurchan, Moidart, Morar, Morvern and the Isle of Mull are among those who regularly use the ferry.

It is also used by visitors to the area.

Highland Council owns, funds, and operates the service.

The local authority's project manager for the Corran Ferry, Murray Bain, told MSPs the route needed new ferries.

When the MV Corran is in dry dock for repairs or routine maintenance the service is covered by the 1975-built MV Maid of Glencoul.

Mr Bain said the risk of the ferries breaking down because of their age was significant and service was "hanging by a thread".

He said: "The key thing I would like to point here is that the ferries are failing just now. They are at breaking point."

MSPs were told that Highland Council had an approved business case for the two electric ferries and associated infrastructure, but had so far been unable to identify "pots of money" to fund the project.

Mr Bain said the council was still investigating the option of a fixed link - either a bridge or tunnel - across the narrows.

But he added it remained an aspiration and it could be 15 years - and at a cost of £180m - before a bridge or tunnel became a reality.