TOURISM bosses are demanding the Transport Secretary personally intervenes in Scotland's ferry network as businesses are suffering widespread disruption just weeks into the season due to its increasingly ageing fleet.
The body that represents tourism operators in the Outer Hebrides are demanding that Humza Yousaf travels to the islands and want him to reinstate a vital ferry that has been withdrawn from a popular route.
It comes after Caledonian MacBrayne warned that passengers are facing widespread disruption on the network due to potential breakdowns and delays The start of the summer timetable has already been hit by severe disruption as the operator was forced to move ferries around the network to make up a shortfall in available ships.
The average age of ferries serving CalMac’s lifeline routes is almost 22 years and the operator has admitted the peak tourist period is a test for the 32 ferries that serve 51 ports on 49 routes.
CalMac has redeployed bigger vessels to busy routes such as Uig to Harris and North Uist and Oban to Coll/Tiree and Colonsay.
A bigger ferry has also been moved to serve the daily Oban to Lochboisdale on South Uist.
But the knock-on effect has seen other services cancelled or run at a reduced capacity which is hitting local businesses hard.
Now Outer Hebrides Tourism are demanding urgent action as easy access for tourists is “critical” to the local economy.
READ MORE: Ferry operator CalMac warns of delays and breakdowns as fleet is so old
It added: "But those travelling to and from the Outer Hebrides islands are suffering yet again from CalMac juggling ferries services due to ‘operational reasons.
“In the few weeks since the start of the peak tourist season, capacity has been sacrificed at short notice from the ‘Uig triangle’ ferry route with a vessel too small to even deliver an effective service for pre-booked passengers and the ‘Lord of the Isles’ has been removed from the Mallaig - Lochboisdale route, until further notice.
"OHT is also extremely concerned over the recent recurrent warnings from Calmac that their vessels are too old to guarantee service reliability so asks what steps are being taken to provide, at absolute minimum, a fit-for-purpose ferry service for the future to the Outer Hebrides.”
Ian Fordham, Chairman of OHT added:"Negative tourism impacts follow ferry capacity issues. The removal of ‘Lord of the Isles’ from the Mallaig - Lochboisdale route so early in the season has highlighted severe problems in the fleet and its capacity. We await the Minister’s response.”
OHT has a target with its partners to generate £74 million from tourism for the islands economy by 2020.
It comes amid concerns a 10-fold increase in traffic is already causing severe problems for island communities.
Last year, CalMac carried more than five million passengers, nearly 1.5 million cars, some 80,000 coaches, and just under one million metres of commercial traffic.
The huge rise in tourists follows the introduction of a Scottish Government scheme to make island ferry fares more affordable.
Road Equivalent Tariff was introduced to boost remote economies - and worked so well the number of cars on one route is up by more than 80 per cent.
It fares on the cost of travelling the equivalent distance by road and has cut fares by up to 55%.
But the rise brought severe disruption last year and island communities are already braced for further delay.
Across the network, car traffic has increased by just over 25%, which is causing severe problems as islanders struggle to book ferries and increased traffic contends with many single-track roads.
A CalMac spokesman said: "Any issues with a vessel on one part of the network will have knock-on effects for other routes, as boats need to be diverted or deployed elsewhere to keep the lifeline network running"
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