By Professor John Robertson OBA

Brian Wilson is in the Herald today with another ill-informed rant against CalMac and by association, of course, the SNP in Government.

Read it yourself, if you have the stomach.

Here are the facts:

Research reveals Scotland’s island communities benefit from the most inclusive, generously subsidised and up-to-date ferry service in the comparable world

Research undertaken for Transport Scotland in 2022, by Ernst and Young LLP, compared the ferry systems operating in Scotland, Canada (BC), Norway, Australia and New Zealand.

The Norway service is a bit of an outlier with twice as many passengers per year than the next biggest, BC with 22m and 9 times greater than in Scotland with only 5m. Also, key information on subsidies could not be collected for the Norwegian or the New Zealand systems.

Most striking is the level of subsidy per passenger. In Scotland, it averages £29.80 per passenger journey. In Canada (BC), it is only just over half at £16.36 and in Australia, only just over one-tenth at £3.86. Norway figures are not presented.

Also fascinating, is the ratio of vessels per passenger journey. In Scotland, there is on average, 1 ferry for every 161 290 journeys; in New Zealand, 1 for every 200 000 journeys; in Australia, 1 ferry for every 468 750 journeys; in Canada only 1 ferry for every 628 571 journeys.

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!

Finally and an important measure of the value of a system to communities, how many locations and routes are served?

Despite having by far the fewest passenger journeys (5m), other than in New Zealand, in Scotland, 52 terminals and 29 routes are served.

In Canada, 47 terminals and 25 routes are served.

In Australia, only 38 terminals and 9 routes are served.

In New Zealand, 21 terminals and 24 routes are served.

This research clearly demonstrates that, after 16 years of SNP-rule, the people in Scotland’s islands benefit from a far more generous taxpayer-funded service than anywhere comparable in the world.

There are other ferry services for islands in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines but given their deadly qualities, I doubt that any island representatives in Scotland would think it fair to compare with them.

https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/strategic-framework-of-options-for-the-chfs-network-project-neptune/benchmarking/

Arran islanders benefit from massively under-used, apparently far from ‘lifeline’ ferry service

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:

1. https://www.calmac.co.uk/article/2607/Route-Performance–CalMac-Ferries
2. https://www.calmac.co.uk/article/9241/Carrying-Statistics-2022—text-version
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Caledonian_Isles

You can now add Tasmania to New Zealand, Greece, Isle of Wight, Washington State, British Columbia, Lake Ontario, Alaska, Channel Islands, Scilly Islands and Malta ferries for less-safe, less-reliable, less-frequent and more costly systems than we enjoy in Scotland

As ‘Scottish’ media continue to feed on distorted accounts of the performance of CalMac, by reporters who have not, dare not (?) ever looked beyond Scotland for perspective, even to the Isle of Wight, TuS can now add Tasmania to ever-lengthening list of countries experiencing trauma as result of operating private ferry systems, paying dividends and keeping staff and maintenance costs as low as possible, to the list of reports on:

New Zealand – 4 cases of running aground, drifting toward rocks and hitting wharves in only two years due to under-staffing and under-training (Only man on the bridge could not disable the autopilot because he did not know to hold the button down for 5 seconds!). New ferries cancelled when incoming government refused to pay for them.

Greece – one passenger pushed to his death for arriving late and looking like an immigrant; tourists suffering in overcrowding and having to walk through waves onto beach carrying their cases; no service at all in off-season for smaller islands.

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Isle of Wight – mass cancellations, summer prices 2 to 4 times CalMac equivalents to enable shareholder dividends.

Washington State – far older ferries, far more cancellations and far higher prices, staffing shortages due to low pay.

British Columbia – the same as Washington State.

Lake Ontario – cheap Romanian ferries unable to operate safely two years after delivery, vessels twice the age of CalMac’s and crewing so sparse as to risk disaster.

We had reports, also unflattering, on Alaska, Nov Scotia, the Channel Islands, Scilly Islands and Malta. I’ll leave you to find them.