On another busy Saturday, CalMac’s 287 Clyde sailings were hit by what local Conservative Councillor, Billy Jack, said was ‘a devastating failure by the SNP‘ as 1 of the 16 Arran crossings was cancelled, meaning a ‘shameful‘ only 87.5% on time.
And, and, all of the 1 planned Campbelltown sailings was cancelled meaning a zero service! Local businesses have now been forced to use the road round by Inverary. Conservative councillor, Bobby Jack, said ‘We are not on an isthmus! Who told ye that?’
Overall, Clyde sailings thus failed to meet the 100% target, registering only 99.3% on time.
Not of interest of course to BBC viewers, the 62 Gourock-Dunoon sailings were all on time.
Overall, there were 523 CalMac sailings but only 95% were on time.
Finally, Islay is still ‘cut-off‘ with only 10 out of 10 sailings on time. The local economy must be utterly ruined.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Don’t know about Saturday but today, Sunday, every Caledonian Isles sailing was at least 25 minutes late.
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Which info is national news?
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Its enough to bring a democratically elected Scottish government down, in fascist Uk, the daily rags are a huge asset to the English government.
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Islay is not “cut off” but we have much reduced capacity until Finlaggan returns on July 1st.
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The legacy of English rule, neglected infrastructure in Scotland, especially outwith the central belt where most of the industry was situated and goods exported etc while lining the pockets of England’s governments.
Read, Highland Experiment, by James Grassie, 1983, published by Aberdeen university press. ‘The Story of the Highlands and Islands Development Board’. Except the ‘development’ was really anything but, it was a farce, and a waste of a lot of public money. Surprise surprise.
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Indeed ‘a devastating failure by the SNP‘ gets to the nub of this propaganda campaign, as if SG are actually involved in the building of vessels or operating them or come to that personally driving trains or maintaining lines across Scotland’s sprawling rail network.
But there is a further strand beyond political chicanery to this latest faux hysteria over ferry timetables being created, commercial interests.
I’m old enough to recall the hysterics fomented with the public over bus and train timetables, it was ever used as justification to ‘improve things’ by break up and privatisation – Most always the travelling public saw no benefit yet the prices went up.
I suggest we’re seeing similar agitation by the UK’s renowned asset-strippers, but without getting the public onside it can’t be done.
Which rather brings Alex Holmes’s (murren59) observation into sharp focus – Does Alex merely have a weird hobby or been conned into believing the Caledonian Isles sailings “at least 25 minutes late” are important ?
Should Calmac have cancelled a sailing in order to get back on schedule to please an observer from a window no matter how many customers would have been inconvenienced ?
How many actual paying customers shrug off a 25 minute delay as ‘just one of those things’ ? I suggest most.
With Calmac juggling 162,750 sailings a year, it’s inevitable something unforeseen will happen to break the rhythm, it’s not as if they’re doing it on purpose.
It’s an inconvenience for all parties, not life threatening.
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