In a year, CalMac makes around 4 000 sailings (not inc cancellations) between Ardrossan and Brodick.1
In 2022, they carried 692 518 passengers and 183 092 cars.2
So on average, each sailing took around 173 passengers and 45 cars.
The MV Caledonian Isles, operating the route in 2022, takes up to 1 000 passengers and 110 cars.3
So, accepting the ferry may well full in high summer even with increased sailings, this suggests quite a lot of spare capacity in the system, massively subsidised for a population of only 5 000.
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 
Indeed the Brodick run has long enjoyed over-capacity on it’s regular and subsidised ferry service, even during cover by a backup vessel when maintenance or repair is required.
The Ian Dalton article in the Scotsman over the added one week delay in the Caledonian Isles returning to service, is as much a contrivance to keep negative publicity going over Calmac as it is excuse to regurgitate the Ferguson saga.
It is all part of an orchestrated negative propaganda campaign, but your quoted numbers for Arran spurred a contextual thought… I struggle to think of any other island on Calmac’s vast service where the entire population could be evacuated in a morning ?
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34 ferries. 6 on order. Two saving £Billions in fuel. 70,000 islanders. One ferry on average for 2,000 islanders. All year’s service. Better than some bus services. Subsidised fares and subsidised flights,
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If there’s one ferry per 2,000 islanders then why does Islay with a population of 3,500, plus considerable freight for whisky,get cut to a one vessel service in the winter? This winter’s timetable again has only one sailing from the island to the mainland on Saturdays – the changeover day for most accommodation and the day working Islanders need to get off island for a weekend break.
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‘need’?
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If that reference is to Arran, perhaps comparing 5,058 pop and a 55 minute journey with 3,228 and a 3 hr 58 minute journey might give a clue, although the travelnet people do appear to be a tad confused https://www.travelguide.net/route/oban-port-askaig/
” Saturdays – the changeover day for most accommodation and the day working Islanders need to get off island for a weekend break ” is undoubtedly the most ridiculous comment I’ve heard thus far. Which one are you, Martin Williams or Ian Dalton ?
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The Islay ferry over a 12 month period runs at around 20% of its load and passenger capacity, probably the most heavily subsidised Calmac service. During the summer and tourist season I would hazard that the load and passenger service reaches a much higher capacity, possibly even viable for that period, but….
With the subsidy available even for a private contractor I would suggest you could expect a much reduced service and frankly if I was Calmac or the SG I would put the service out to tender.
Golfnut
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because Arran gets tourists numpty lots of them, off course the figures for Arran are massively down as a substantial number of tourists no longer come on days trips due to a variety of reasons including the cost of living crisis but also because of the unreliability of the service Cal-Mac Provides.
to think I cheered Prof John Robertson when he spoke at a Demo outside the BBC HQ when he spoke eloquently about State Propaganda and now he is just spouting unresearched SNP Propaganda. Where are the comparative figures for the other Islands? He claims that Arran is subsidised, if true it’s due to the incompetence and inefficiency of Cal-Mac, it’s nearly impossible not to make a profit on a run with over 3/4 million passengers per year, how to Western Ferries or Pentland Ferries make a profit without subsidy? In fact it was acknowledged that the Arran and Mull Runs were the only two profitable routes on the Cal-Mac network. But don’t let the truth get in the way of smearing an Island, the Island whose votes “won” the 2007 Scottish Election for the SNP.
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O/T
Keir Starmer tweeted a video on the 20 August with him and the (new) Welsh FM.
In it he said:
“I’m here looking at what a very important renewable project to discuss with the FM (of Wales as he was in Carmarthenshire) how we can work more closely together on the renewable projects of the Future to turbo charge the work we need to do on that energy transition”.
“For the first time here in Wales, we’ve got a WM government that wants to work with the Wales government to deliver for everybody across Wales. So a very important initiative on energy, but more broadly a very important political initiative to show that we are actually going to be jointly working to deliver for Wales”.
Well I am delighted for the Welsh people but also very confused as well.
As I thought that Labour and Keir Starmer declared that Scotland was to be the main focus for UK renewable energy via their new and supposedly great Labour initiative the GB Energy company.
However it seems that the (Scottish) location of GB Energy’s HQ’s has yet to be announced !
(How long have Labour now been in power as the UK Govt. ?)
After reading Keir Starmer’s above tweet it seems that , with his plans for Wales , one would be forgiven for assuming it was Wales who was to be the UK main focus for his UK government’s renewable energy plans and not as he formerly pledged prior to the UK GE that “Scotland will lead the UK’s clean energy revolution”.
So is Starmer now pledging that Wales will see more economic benefits from GB Energy renewable projects than Scotland (the same Scotland that will produce most of the UK’s renewable energy)?
The same GB Energy company, which, as a company, will not actually supply or produce energy (electricity) to households as it is really just a private sector investment vehicle .
(Or perhaps it is best described as yet another alternate PFI project via Labour).
Is there no end to Keir Starmer and his party’s duplicity .
That would be a NO then.
However , if more people were only to wake up in Scotland, why then would they not come to finally realise that why is it , yet again , that Scotland is once more to be used by the UK where prior to the UK GE Keir Starmer declared that :
“Scotland will lead the UK’s clean energy revolution”.
So why instead can ‘Scotland (as an independent country) not lead the clean energy revolution in Europe’ ?
Considering our , Scotland’s, renewable potential and capacity we could drastically cut our energy bills in Scotland and then our energy bills would be a fraction of what they are now with us being within the UK.
However clearly, yet again, it is the UK that prevents this and so it it them and their politicians who hold Scotland back from any real progress being made .
Which then prevents us, in Scotland , from living a far far better life and it also prevents us from being in a far far better financial position as citizens of what could be a truly independent and far wealthier country , as in Scotland.
But then Keir Starmer and Labour are more focused and interested in delivering for England and Wales it seems while pretending Scotland is getting the best deal within the UK .
In them , Labour, basing their supposed ‘HQ’ of their new so called GB Energy company here in Scotland ( an exaggerated version of a nameplate exercise only I suspect).
Something has to “Change” and I hope it is the minds of more (majority of) people in Scotland who will finally see the benefits of Scotland being independent and so free from lying UK politicians and their UK client media .
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Don’t forget the Claonaig- Lochranza route to and from Arran too!
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Well this article wins the prize for the over simplification of a very complex issue.
With a side portion of neo clearances.
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I’ve asked this question before without any responses, what is it that you want from the SG and Calmac? please don’t tell me you want a service and not a timetable.
Golfnut
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3. Residents are not demanding any subsidies we are demanding a vaguely reliable service.
4. The sources referenced, only 1 of the two CalMac links work….thats about right.
5. Stats are for 2022, what about ‘23 or ‘24? You’ll never have them because CalMac haven’t been able to collect any stats since new booking system came into effect.
5. Arran has had 14+ years of SNP councillors, MP and MSP so plenty of independence support but now we are one Holyrood election away from having zero SNP representation. Why? Because it’s not an ideological issue it’s a government incompetence issue.
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