In the wake of ferry fiascos in British Columbia, Washington State and New Zealand and a ferry fatality in Greece, foreign settlers on Gozo (population 40 000), part of Malta, are threatening to leave if they don’t get a decent ferry service: https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/gozo-sunk-sea-passivity.1060170
There are currently 2 daily crossings, taking 25 minutes between MĠARR, GOZO and ĊIRKEWWA, MALTA, costing €4.65 (£4): https://www.gozochannel.com/ferry/fares/passenger/
The Dunoon (population 7 660) to Gourock service operated by CalMac also takes 25 minutes but has 58 crossings a day, and costs £2-4: https://www.rome2rio.com/Ferry/Gourock/Dunoon#:~:text=Caledonian%20MacBrayne%20operates%20a%20ferry,the%20journey%20takes%2025%20min.
Please slot this into your mind, alongside earlier evidence that CalMac is, contrary to all media reports in Scotland, perhaps the best comparable ferry service in the world: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/10/01/factcheck-calmac-probably-best-comparable-ferry-service-in-world/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I have had occasional use of Calmac ferries over a period of 50 years. Always excellent service with friendly and helpful crews and harbour staff. One breakdown occurred during a long-distance bike trip down the islands. Another ferry was put on the same afternoon.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Can I ask you John, have you seen the BBC’s Island Crossing documentary, which is about CalMac, and if you have, what do you think of it?
LikeLike
Scared to watch! Retired now so reluctant to have to buy new TV.
LikeLike
I’m guessing you don’t have a TV licence, right?
LikeLike
Afraid I do. Need to watch RepScot so I can kick it later
LikeLike
If Ferries, as seems, are to be promoted as an actual gauge that determines whether a government is to be seen as successful or not and indeed the significant standard by which a country either rises or falls (LOL) , given the HUGE amount of time and effort via both the media here and too the various opposition parties who consistently contribute such an excessive amount of their attention upon that very subject.
Then why was the debacle of the Tory, then Transport Minister, Chris Grayling aka ‘Failing Grayling’ , wasting millions of tax payers money on what was reported as being ‘Phantom Ferries’ , pre what was an anticipated NO deal Brexit occurring, to then not be something that really then resulted in a negative impact upon the Tories in subsequent elections ? …..or is it that it as a very much UK generated Ferry failure story one that is to be consigned to history and then as such, as a UK related failure, can then never be revisited upon or focused too much upon again and again and again etc etc ….. or even indeed deemed as THE most significant and worse of all UK ‘Ferry fiasco (REAL) incidents’ compared to what has and still is being reported relentlessly via the media upon Scottish Ferry stories….for reasons all too obvious.
“On 29 December 2018, it emerged that Grayling’s department had awarded £46.6m to French firm Brittany Ferries, £42.5m to Danish shipping firm DFDS, and £13.8m to British firm Seaborne Freight, to provide additional cross-channel freight capacity in case of a “no-deal” Brexit on 29 March 2019. On 2 January 2019, it was reported that Seaborne Freight had never run a ferry service and owned no ships. The Road Haulage Association said the firm had an impossible timescale in which to “source ferries, hire and train staff and link with relevant authorities”…….
So as far as UK Ferry stories go then I would say the failing Grayling TORY UK government Ferry story is THE Daddy of them all via most tax payers money WASTED and too THE biggest duck up…..surely ??
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘If Ferries, as seems, are to be promoted as an actual gauge that determines whether a government is to be seen as successful or not and indeed the significant standard by which a country either rises or falls …’ If only it were just ‘ferries’, uniquely in Scotland, that have been accorded such an accolade.
We know that ANY aspect of Scottish Government policy and provision, and ANY aspect of public service delivery by ANY agency of the Scottish Government may be similarly used from time to time. Once negativity around ‘ferries’ has declined in potency, some other subject will arise, perhaps a novel one or perhaps an old, recurring favourite.
Now at one level, the holding of a government to account throughout its term of office by a ‘fearless’ media is a ‘good thing’ in principle for democracy. And if the Scottish Government was the government of a ‘normal’ nation state with full powers, then it also would have to accept the full responsibility that goes with having such powers, and accept the flack from the news media for perceived shortfalls in performance. We in Scotland are far from being in that situation.
Oppositional (Unionist) politicians and their allies amongst media commentators promote the pretence that the devolved administration in Edinburgh has as near the untrammelled powers of a normal nation state as possible in those matters which have been devolved to it from Westminster. It does not! They also rely on the falsehood that shortcomings evident today cannot be attributed in part, sometime a substantial part, to the long term legacy of Westminster dominance. They can!
To bolster this pretence, opposition politicians refuse even to acknowledge the relevance of comparing and contrasting what happens in Scotland with what’s happening in England, NI and Wales – except perhaps when comparison is less favourable to Scotland, not a common occurrence!
And this is complemented – coincidently of course(!) – not only by the actions of an oppositional mainstream corporate media but by also by those of a public sector news organisation with huge resources, the BBC. The evidence provided over years now here on TuS and elsewhere is compelling: the BBC consistently refuses to provide its audiences with context or perspective when reporting Scotland; it refuses to provide comparative analyses of different governments’ or of equivalent government-funded bodies’ performance across the nations of the UK; it practices ‘bias by omission’ as it favours the tactic of ‘gaslighting’ voters in Scotland; and it plays ‘soft-ball’ with opposition politicians from Scotland in prime-time interviews.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Tourists away. 4 ferries soon. More jobs and investment in Scotland.
Only one built a year previously.
LikeLike