By Professor John Robertson, Genuine Ferry Correspondent

BBC Scotland’s welcome for the largest and most advanced ferry ever in the UK, massively subsidised to keep workers in jobs and give islanders a cheap service to locations, privately owned systems across the globe would just abandon, is typically grudging and saturated with cringe:

Ferries saga ship Glen Sannox finally delivered, The long-delayed ship at the centre of Scotland’s ferries saga has been handed over by the Ferguson shipyard, exactly seven years after it was launched.

Got any evidence?

Just this, all of this:

First, The MV Caledonian Isles was taken off the Arran/Ayrshire (Ardrossan or Troon) service and replaced by the MV Alfred to partner the MV Isle of Arran. There has been 1 cancellation, with these two vessels in the last 100 sailings – 99% reliable. 

https://www.calmac.co.uk/calmac-performance-data-browser?date=27%2F09%2F2024

The brand new MV Glen Sannox has already been able to berth in Brodick with a view to replacing the MV Arnold in December 2024.

Second, 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, each sailing took an average of 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

Third, Arran ferry credited with enabling massive tourism boost

In 2022 (latest data), Ayrshire and Arran saw 630 000 overnight visitors and 4.2 million UK day-trippers, 2.11 million nights were spent in accommodation and £345 million was spent.

Around one quarter of those reported using a ferry. There is only one ferry route from Ayrshire – to Arran.

So, a very significant part of the above benefits are gained by Arran, population only 5 058 out of 369 360 in Ayrshire and Arran.

To quote Anonymous:

How the hell did most of these people travel over to Arran?

There’s only one way, barring a tiny plane or your daddy’s yacht – CalMac Ferries.

But, wait aren’t they too infrequent and unreliable ? The media and some politicians insist they are.

Anytime, I look, it’s 10 sailings a day, 100% on time and rarely one or two sailings cancelled, often for high winds, but never ‘cut-off.’

In May 2024, I did a quick survey of all CalMac ferries and found from the 1st to the 28th May 2024, across its 50 or so routes with 34 vessels, CalMac averaged 98.8% on time. The Arran crossing hit nearly 100%.

Tourism in Ayrshire & Arran generates a direct economic impact of over £355 million and a total economic impact of over £470 million. The industry supports 9,475 Full-Time Equivalent jobs.

Should islanders be grateful? From Golfnut in August 2024:

Sources:

The current 2 ship service dates back to 2004 and that service provision would have quickly disappeared had the Scottish government not introduced subsidies which 1, kept the service provision viable and 2, made the the service affordable to the islanders and tourists. This applies across the fleet with some destinations barely washing their face financially.

The much abused phrase ‘ lifeline service ‘ applies to the provision provided by the Scottish Government, because without those subsidies that life line service for a lot of islanders wouldn’t exist.

https://www.visitscotland.org/research-insights/regions/ayrshire-arran

CalMac hits 99% for month of May until Unionist council-owned and maintained lifeline terminal fails after 11 years of neglect

https://www.ayrshire-arran.org/

Exclusive Ferry Factcheck – Arran islanders ‘have never had it so good!’

Finally, Why the people of Arran should be delighted with the best ferry service in the world

In the Herald today, regular contributor, Neil Arthur (78), well-known Arran Ferry Committee member and strangely blind to the far better service than the one he seems to remember as a boy, is allowed to suggest:

It’s clear that Scotland’s ferries system is broken beyond repair

I’ll say it again, CalMac is running the world’s best ferry service for cost, reliability and safety.

Proof – read these:

For the fully-sourced facts, see: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=CalMac

For the fully-sourced facts, see: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=CalMac

For the fully-sourced facts, see: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=CalMac