Today headlining on the BBC Scotland website:

CalMac cuts passenger numbers over safety failure

They open with:

Ferry operator CalMac has been forced to cut passengers numbers on its MV Isle of Mull vessel to just 45 after it failed a safety check.

Problems were identified with the ship’s evacuation system during its annual overhaul.

CalMac has confirmed passenger numbers must be temporarily limited to reflect the spaces available on its lifeboats.

BBC Scotland open with the above before going on to milk the story for a further 7 paragraphs before this:

CalMac says passenger bookings on the Lochboisdale route very rarely exceed 45 passengers per sailing at this time of year. At the time the restrictions were brought in, there were no bookings exceeding the 45 passengers per sailing limit.

So, the headline story is ‘Nothing to report here?

So 45 or less booked on the MV Isle of Mull over the winter months, even at New Year? How many can she take?

900!

FFS and she sails with 45 or less? Who’s paying for that? You and me. Are the islanders grateful? You bet they’re not.

Joe, above, is from Somerset and may be the Mull person I heard on Radio Scotland, a few years back, saying CalMac is the worst ferry service in the world.

Is the MV Isle of Mull the only largely empty ferry sailing steadily through the winter?

I have previously checked the Arran service for this very thing:

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 be 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

Are the Arran islanders grateful. Most probably are but enough, typically not born there, are ever ready to contact the media when the service fails to meet their southern sense of entitlement.

Is CalMac worst in the world? What do you think? Over the last few years, I’ve looked at them all.

Here’s a better candidate:

Washington State Ferries in the USA have just announced new prices for the popular 15 miles, 1 hour crossing of the sheltered Puget Sound, between Bremerton and Seattle – $54.35 or £43.30. https://mynorthwest.com/3959021/travel-alert-washington-ferry-prices-go-up-amid-waves-riders/

The popular 14.3 miles, 1 hour 20 minutes crossing of the, at times very stormy, Firth of Clyde, from Brodick, Arran to Ardrossan, is £30.20.

How is this possible?

In 2022/2023, the SNP Government ferry subsidy to keep prices down to affordable levels for hopefully grateful islanders, native or settler, was £173 MILLION! https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24276739.calmac-gets-63-real-terms-public-subsidy-rise-despite-drop/#:~:text=Then%20the%20grant%20to%20CalMac,space%20of%20just%20one%20year.

There are many mainland villages in Scotland with far longer journey times from larger towns or city centres without comparable help. The ferry users group chairs should write to the Herald and BBC Scotland, tell them to zip it for fear of attracting public scrutiny of their subsidies, then zip it themselves. I know it’s hard if you’ve just retired from being Chief Executive of Arsechester Dairies, to a Scottish island, to stop talking, but do try.