THE First Minister has said she is "determined" to improve ferry services to Scotland's island communties in the wake of widespread concern over relaibility.
Concerns about ferry services resurfaced after it emerged journeys to and from Arran are to be disrupted till Sunday after one of the two vessels that cover the route was suddenly withdrawn from service while the other suffered ramp damage.
Operator Caledonian MacBrayne said that due to a "technical issue" with the propulsion system the MV Isle of Arran which runs from Ardrossan to Brodick has been forced to lay up to allow repairs to be carried out.
As a result, all sailings operated by the MV Isle of Arran were cancelled from Tuesday to Sunday inclusive.
Around half of the timetable services between Ardrossan and Brodick will now be running.
Jamie Green, the West Scotland Conservative MSP took concerns up with the First Minister, saying that moves to create "regular and reliable" ferry services to Scotland's island communities should be "a matter of priority".
He said:"The Ardrossan to Arran ferry is a lifeline service for residents and quite a vital part of its tourism industry.
"In the past year it has been disrupted due to continuous cancellations.
"Once again it is offline for technical reasons and only half of of the timetable is currently running."
But he said it was not just the Arran services, island communities across the country were being "let down by an aging fleet", with new replacement vessels already a year late.
"Does the First Minister understand why Scotland's island communities are quickly losing their patience with this Government's inability to provide them regular and reliable ferry services?"
He said at First Minister's Questions that it should be tackled as "a matter or priority."
Nicola Sturgeon said "a range of work" was ongoing to ensure that those living and working on islands "have the services they deserve".
She said: "I am aware, as is the entire government about the pressures on the ferry network, we understand the impact that has on people's lives and businesses in our island communities.
READ MORE: CalMac ferry breakdown causes major disruption to Arran services
"I've heard at first hand from communities in Arran when the cabinet recently met in Arran about the pressures increased visitor numbers are putting on these lifeline services.
"These are complex challenges but we are determined to improve services.
"We have invested significantly in ferry services and we continue to work to address these issues.
"Over a billion pounds has been invested in ferry services across the Clyde and Hebrides since 2007, eight new ferries have been added to the CalMac fleet since 2007.
"We are continuing to invest in new vessels and ferry infrastructure."
The latest Arran issue come as new figures revealed that last year 911,434 passengers were clocked on its two ferry routes. That is 20 per cent more than a decade ago. The figures for cars are rising even faster, by 44 per cent from 2007 to total 229,664 in 2017.
Two new taxpayer-funded ferry vessels, one due to serve Arran, being built at Ferguson Marine Engineering’s shipyard in Port Glasgow on the Clyde have been hit by further delays.
One of the ferries, MV Glenn Sannox - which is destined for the Arran-Ardrossan route was due to enter service this summer but construction delays meant that was initially put back to the winter of 2018/19.
Earlier this year, the ship went into dry dock for work on problems with the bulbous bow section.
Ferguson Marine has now confirmed the ship will not be ready until next summer, a full year behind schedule.
Launched by Nicola Sturgeon last November, delivery was delayed from May this year to winter 2018/19, before the latest snag.
The latest postponement was announced by the Scottish Government in a written parliamentary answer.
Ferguson Marine on the Clyde won a Scottish government contract worth about £97m to build the vessels.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel