The Ardrossan Herald is keen to dramatize the simple smooth replacement of a replacement ferry by another as a ‘double whammy‘ and to characterise the replacement as ‘ageing.’
There will still be two ferries serving the 5 000 population of Arran, massively subsidised to offer the lowest prices in the western world, by the rest of us, linked to either Ardrossan or Troon, both perfectly convenient for Glasgow.
As we move off-season, the vessels will be commonly less than half full.
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:
- https://www.calmac.co.uk/article/2607/Route-Performance–CalMac-Ferries
- https://www.calmac.co.uk/article/9241/Carrying-Statistics-2022—text-version
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Caledonian_Isles
As for ageing ferries:
In terms of age, interesting in the light of media headlines here, Scotland’s ferries are the newest with an average of 22 years, with Australian ferries at 24, Norwegian at 26 and the Canadian ferries at 35! https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/strategic-framework-of-options-for-the-chfs-network-project-neptune/benchmarking/7 former and pretty elderly CalMac ferries are still running in one of the most affluent countries in Europe, Ireland. MV Eigg (1974) Clare Island Ferries MV Kilbrannan (1972) as above, renamed MV Clew Bay Queen, MVs Rhum, Canna, Coll & Morvern, (1974/1975) Arranmore Ferries. MVs Kyleakin & Kyle of Lochalsh (1970), Carrigloe crossing, County Cork. Source: You can find them all on wikipedia.In British Columbia, Canada: The 47 year-old replacement ferry, the MV Queen of Alberni, is also ‘in the shop’ experiencing mechanical problems with its main engine, forcing several sailings to be cancelled: https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2747831In Greece: MV Orion (formerly MV Saturn, Scottish Gaelic: Satharn, and MV Orcadia) is a ro-ro passenger and vehicle ferry. Saturn was operated by Caledonian MacBrayne in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland between 1978 and 2011, for the first decade of her career on the Rothesay crossing. In 2021 she was sold to Creta Cargo Lines, Greece, renamed Orion, and towed to Perama for conversion to increase freight capacity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Orcadia
On breakdowns:
- CalMac is operating at 95.4% average reliability with currently more than 500 sailings and not one destination with no sailings: https://www.calmac.co.uk/calmac-performance-data-browser
- In Canada last week, three ferries breakdown in quick succession but no one blames the government: https://biv.com/article/2023/08/resilience-put-test-bc-ferries-tries-cope-high-traffic-staff-shortages-vessel
- In Canada in July, BC Ferries cancel 1 163 sailings due to staff shortages https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2023/07/13/BC-Ferries-Cancelling-Sailings-Jobs/. CalMac pays the Living Wage: https://www.calmac.co.uk/article/5037/Caledonian-MacBrayne-named-as-the-Living-Wage-Foundations-Scottish-Champion-2016
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
“Good news” but not for either the BBC or the opposition parties in Scotland.
(Also as it is “Good news” it is very likely to be ignored as such “in the news where we are” or let’s be honest elsewhere too within the UK by all other UK media and UK political parties too) .
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Are these complainers from Arran the ”something for nothing ” people that a prominent Labour politician claimed was a Scottish trait ? They need to stop looking a Gift Horse in the mouth and thank the rest of the country for being so generous in the issue of subsidies to The Islands .
Or would they prefer a private operator , responsible to shareholders demands for a profitable return on their money , running the much more expensive service ?
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How hard is it for companies operating on Arran – how hard relative to businesses elsewhere?
The ‘Auchrannie Resort’ is one of the largest, plushest hotel, spa and leisure offerings to tourists visiting Arran. It must be one of the island’s largest companies and wholly dependent on its customers wanting to – and being able to – get to the island. On the home page of its web site its states: ‘Did you know that 750,000 journeys are made to and from Arran each year?’
The company web site describes its history in the following terms: ‘Auchrannie was acquired by …. in 1988 with a view to providing indoor leisure facilities on the island. In the process of achieving this objective, Auchrannie has grown from a 16 bedroom guest house to a resort now comprising two 4 star hotels with 85 rooms, thirty 5 star self-catering luxury lodges, 14 retreats, three iconic restaurants, a shop, two leisure clubs with pools, a destination spa, an outdoor adventure centre and a childrens ‘Playbarn’.’ (my emphasis)
Now by any measure that is a history of remarkable transformation, presumably enabled in no small part by a ferry service delivered by a publicly-owned company subsidised by tax payers across Scotland.
Auchrannie Holdings Limited acts as the holding company of a group which consists of Auchrannie Leisure Limited and others operating on the island. What follows are extracts from the holding company’s annual accounts over recent years, publicly available from the Companies House website.
Just prior to the Covid pandemic, from the year ending 31 March 2019:
Turnover = £8,269,643 (Year to 31 March 2018 turnover was £7,690,731)
From the Group Strategic Report: ‘healthy forecast of occupancy for the next 12 months’
Main risks and uncertainties:
– Competition
– Shortage of skilled staff and pay pressures
– Increasing material and consumable prices that are unrecoverable
– Settlement of accounts.
Did Brexit impact negatively its access to skilled labour?
From the year ending 31 March 2021:
Turnover = £3,594,010
From the Group Strategic Report: ‘healthy forecast of occupancy for the next 12 months’
Main risks and uncertainties:
– Competition
– Shortage of skilled staff and pay pressures
– Limited scope to increase prices to offset costs, particularly energy costs
– Higher debt servicing costs due to higher interest rates.
The impact of Covid seems evident on turnover and again staffing issues and now inflation and interest rate rises are impactful. Which of these factors can be attributable to actions or inactions of which one of Scotland’s governments?
From the year ending 31 March 2022 (signed off 21 December 2022):
Turnover = £9, 655,884
From the Group Strategic Report: ‘healthy forecast of occupancy for the next 12 months’
Main risks and uncertainties:
– Competition
– Shortage of skilled staff and pay pressures
– Limited scope to increase prices to offset costs, particularly energy costs
– Higher debt servicing costs due to higher interest rates.
In turnover terms, the company had bounced back from Covid but access to skilled staff (a Brexit consequence?), inflationary pressures including now energy costs, and higher interest rates are regarded as business risks. How much media profile has been given to Arran businesses protesting against these negative impacts on their business – has there been any protest via the media? Perhaps the origins of such negative factors are too far away in Westminster?
From the year ending 31 March 2023 (signed off 22 December 2023):
Turnover = £10,441,415
From the Group Strategic Report: ‘healthy forecast of occupancy for the next 12 months’
Main risks and uncertainties:
– Competition
– Shortage of skilled staff and pay pressures
– Limited scope to increase prices to offset costs, particularly energy costs
– Higher debt servicing costs due to higher interest rates
– Unreliability of ferry services
– Capacity of ferry services.
Notably in the latest accounts, turnover – a rough measure of increased business activity – edges upwards still. But now for the first time ‘ferries’ appear in the company’s risk register. However, notwithstanding its concerns about ‘ferry’ issues, the company reports a ‘‘healthy forecast of occupancy for the next 12 months”: this positivity remains a constant!
It asserts ‘unreliability’ – what is the evidence for this? How unreliable in absolute terms; how unreliable in relative terms, relative to other comparable ferry services? Everyone wants reliable public transport services: every island community wants and needs this. What is a reasonable expectation of maritime transport?
And it identifies ‘capacity’ as a risk: anyone know how ‘capacity’ of Arran’s ferries has changed over time? Is ‘capacity’ a concern in absolute terms or relative to the present scale and ambition of this business?
What increased level of subsidised ‘capacity’ does this commercial enterprise wish to obtain? Does it wish the Scottish tax payer to increase public subsidy still further to meet the commercial growth aspirations of the company which based on its transformative development history seems to have benefited hugely already from the publicly-funded ferry service to Arran?
These seem like legitimate questions in a situation when the responsible government has to operate within a constrained, largely fixed budget upon which there are many calls.
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