Ferries model has failed the people of Arran. We need real change

Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf are totally complicit in all of this. CalMac's recent purchase of a completely useless £18.5m Italian-sourced ticketing and booking system is entirely their fault and in-house CalMac sources say, after a year in operation, it is so bad that it cannot be fixed and never will be fixed. That is largely to do with lack of consultation over the last six years with island residents who offered assistance. Alan Hood (unsurprisingly still in post) of CalMac must carry the can for that.

Shuffling deckchairs on sinking vessels, with or without icebergs, will not undo 17 years of total ferry mismanagement of the failed tripartite ferries model: CalMac, CMAL, and the Scottish Government's Transport Scotland.

Island residents of many years like me and more have predicted for far too many years that this day was coming. But they would not listen; well that day is here. Robbie Drummond leaving will not fix it. An immediate judicial-led review is essential, without kicking it into the proverbial long grass, and further sackings must follow.

Ferries are about “a service” not about timetable, a concept that has been so overlooked for too long; except of course when it suits Transport Scotland and CalMac to pretend that they are providing a "lifeline service”, a notion that is no longer recognisable. "De-bundling" the routes, privatisation and every other so far seriously-alien unexplored option must be considered asap, without RMT interference - but a straightforward renewal of the contract handed to CalMac without due process and competition has to be the only option not on the table.

Neil Arthur, Kilpatrick, Isle of Arran.

Enough is enough

THE west coast ferries operate in dangerous waters. Last week David Tydeman was lost overboard, now Robbie Drummond: two good men I believe doing their best with the cards they were dealt, and very poor cards they were. Unfortunately they each had the same fatal flaw which lead to their demise: they told the truth.

In the saga of the ferries nothing is guaranteed to ensure your removal from the game quicker than that. Mr Tydeman stated that there would be further delays to completion and Mr Drummond advised the next two years would continue to be difficult. Unfortunately both of these statements are correct and neither man had the support of boards with sufficient backbone to reinforce this.

CalMac continues to operate the best service it can with the outdated fleet provided and unless you believe that management and workforce at Ferguson's have, after 120 years, suddenly forgotten how to build ships, there must be another reason behind the present shambles in their yard.

These gentlemen and their former organisations are the public face of the problem and therefore sitting targets.

The silent partners in this fiasco, the Scottish Government and CMAL, continue to sail on under the radar without being called to account in any way. Do we hear of anyone in either of these organisations having to step down, being removed from post or simply resigning over the current situation? No, because they all play by the primary rule of the game: cover your back and make sure the truth is never revealed to the general public who pay our wages.

When are we the public going to stand up and say enough is enough? Let's use our voice and call out the real incompetents behind this situation and not the undeserving targets like Mr Drummond and Mr Tydeman.

John Ferguson, Rothesay.

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• STEVEN Camley is simply a genius. However, today’s cartoon of government ministers responsible for the ferry fiasco (April 4) does not go nearly far enough: it should have included Nicola Sturgeon, who insisted on launching a ferry with painted-on windows, as well as Kevin Hobbs, CEO of CMAL and his Director of Vessels, Jim Anderson, as well as Alison Irvine, CEO of Transport Scotland, and her Director of Ferries, Roddy MacDonald.

For far too long, these faceless people have been able to hide beneath the parapet while frontline people like David Tydeman and Robbie Drummond are scapegoated at the direction of the hapless Scottish Government.

It is time they were named and shamed.

John NE Rankin, Bridge of Allan.

Nicola Sturgeon at the soft launch of the Glen Sannox in 2017 (Image: PA)

Memory not up to Par

WHILE I admire the frankness of your correspondent John V Lloyd (Letters, April 4), I worry about his memory.

He says he has supported Dunfermline Athletic "for 60 years in a lifetime of utter disappointment".

Miss Park, my maths teacher at Dunfermline High School, would surely have confirmed that the 60-year period encompasses 1968, when Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup, beating Hearts 3-1 (the "1" being a Dunfermline own goal). Some disappointment.

Dr David Syme, Killin.

Now, where's the Quad again?

DAVID Miller’s letter (April 3) regarding CA training in the 1950s brought to mind the compulsory half course in accountancy as part of the Llb degree in Edinburgh in the late 1970s.

My main, perhaps only, takeaway from that course, taught by the inimitable Mr Voge, was “Debit Chambers Street - Credit the Quad”.

Simple enough while sitting in the lecture with these to your left and right, not so for this numerically challenged student when sitting the exam across the road in Adam House. I did pass, on my second attempt.

Kathleen McMahon, Oban.

• LIKE David Miller I followed the teaching that the debit side was the side nearest the window. Only problem was when, in the exam room, the window was on the opposite side of the room. Wonder how many exams were failed because of the exam room being a different configuration to the lecture room?

Henry McColl, Cumbernauld.