I reported yesterday on Isle of Wight, high-season charges of £440 for a return crossing with a car and contrasted that with the longer Arran crossing at £64.80 for the same request:
Today, above, we see evidence of both the extreme high fairs to this English island.
Meanwhile in Scotland, so many folk turned up for the cheap-as-chips (£15.20 return with a car, £4 on foot, bikes FREE), 46 crossings a day 100% on time on Sunday, Largs to Greater Cumbrae island, that they had to wait a bit.
The Herald, of course, completely ignored the bigger story for this excrement:
The above ferry is, of course, younger than many still in service, globally and including in affluent locations in Canada and Ireland:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
In past years, most of us wouldn’t consider that Scotland could be one of London’s colonies; however, a growing number of Scots, including me, do recognize that our country IS that very colony. So, it is long PAST time for our Scotland to AGAIN have its inependent place in the world!
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The public complaints appearing in the mainstream media about the private sector ferry services to the Isle of Wight – both on performance and price – is noteworthy. As indicated on several occasions on TuS, its makes for an interesting quality comparison with CalMac ferries to Scotland’s west coast islands. It should – but probably won’t – encourage those island residents and journalists that endlessly berate CalMac/CMAL/the Scottish Government over ‘ferries’ to get some sensible perspective!
The size of the market would seem to favour the service providers involved with the Isle of Wight – island population of c. 144,000 and a popular tourist destination (data from 2022 gives the annual visitor numbers to this one island as 633,155 – see Isle of Wight Radio website, August 16, 2022).
Competition between three private sector companies – two using conventional ferries and one using hovercraft. The public complaints then are despite commercial focus and competition.
Notwithstanding the market size, the competitive commercial environment plus the relatively straightforward operational logistics compared to CalMac’s, these ferry services have still attracted serious discontent over performance and fares.
How is this commercial, competitive environment manifested in the nature of the fleets serving the island?
Red Funnel fleet of vehicle/passenger ferries, built: 1994 – 2 ferries – (i.e. 28 years old)
1996 – 1 ferry – (30 years old)
(All three were built on the Clyde at the Ferguson yard.)
Wightlink Ferries – six vehicle/passenger ferries, built: 2018 (6 years old)
2009 – 3 ferries (15 years)
2001 (23 years)
1990 (34 years)
Passenger-only ferries: 2009 – 2 ferries (15 years)
Hovertravel operates the fastest ferry crossing between Southsea in Portsmouth and Ryde on the Isle Of Wight Island Flyer – 2016 (8 years old)
Solent Flyer – 2016
(These replaced two 30-year-old AP-188 models Freedom 90 and Island Express.)
Notwithstanding the differences between ferry provision to the Isle of Wight and to Scotland’s west coast islands – market size, complexity of routes/operations – the above characteristics of the Isle of Wight services on the face of it don’t indicate that ‘unbundling’ CalMac services to create a company dedicated to serving for example Mull is a silver bullet solution, and nor is privatisation.
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2 major considerations almost always excluded in any judgement on service delivery. Calmac has around 34 destinations servicing approximately 100,000 people and secondly the subsidy provided by government.
Golfnut.
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what gets me is those english rogues that come up here to live in Scotland uninvited i might add just because their government in little england says we Scottish people do not get to decide these things its okay for little englanders to tell us we cant be in the eu with all the benefits that brings to us including freedom to travel throughout the eu but they get to decide who can and who cannot live in Scotland , then they have the audacity to complain about our country our people and our services which as you clearly show are much much superior to the privatised crap in england , little england is an apt description and its a description that goes well with the minds of those little englander incomers who live on our Scottish islands
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