CalMac have just replaced their oldest large ferry though it’s younger than 11 still in service in affluent Washington State and 13 in British Columbia

From BBC Scotland, yesterday:

The oldest large ferry in the CalMac fleet has been redeployed to a new route after the new ship Glen Sannox took over sailings to Arran. MV Isle of Arran, a 41-year-old ship nicknamed the Auld Trooper, will be based at Oban and used as a second vessel on the Mull route.

MV Caledonian Isles will then partner MV Glen Sannox on the Arran route but, unlike the new ship, can operate out of Ardrossan, which has better onward transports links and offers the shortest sailings to the island.

Washington State Ferries in the USA, has 11 large ferries older than the MV Isle of Arran: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Ferries

Washington State (Seattle) has a far higher GDP than Scotland.

BC Ferries in Canada (Vancouver) has 13 ferries older than the MV Isle of Arran: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BC_Ferries_ships

British Columbia has a far higher GDP than Scotland.

Both BC and WS Ferries charge far higher fares, cannot recruit enough staff and have terrible reliability scores yet pay dividends to shareholders.

Finally, onward transport links? Troon to Glasgow is faster than Ardrossan to Glasgow due to a shorter link to the A77. Troon to Arran is less exposed to storms and thus has fewer cancellations.

6 thoughts on “CalMac have just replaced their oldest large ferry though it’s younger than 11 still in service in affluent Washington State and 13 in British Columbia”

  1. More nonsense.

    There is no train station at Troon Terminal, it’s half an hour walk or a shuttle bus transfer so it takes longer to get to Glasgow from the Ferry Terminal. Vital links to Crosshouse hospital via Ardrossan for Arran residents are lost also.

    Troon is more exposed to weather in different ways so the cancellations argument is unfounded

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  2. Erm, probably best not to highlight Calmacs ageing fleet nor the Caledonian Isles which has now been out of action for a year. She is costing Millions to repair due to age related breakdowns & has resulted in the Scottish Government having to hire the Alfred from privately owned Pentland ferries at a cost of £1m per month during her lay up.

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  4. Jeez you stirred up a hornet’s nest with the agents provocateurs just on that sign-off, believing everybody is as dense as him to not understand the difference between the “A77” and a rail line… I honestly didn’t realise Peel Ports owned Ardrossan harbour station as well as the harbour, god help Scotrail if the ask for a replacement floor or ceiling as with the harbour.

    The agent provocateur has obviously never heaved to apart from a disagreeable one too many, some of the seamanship with handbrake turns in Ardrossan harbour in a storm have been truly spectacular, you don’t see that on a railway.

    However he does strike me as a golfer given the “Troon is more exposed to weather in different ways” bullshit, yet given his cited Crosshouse Hospital is in Kilmarnock, is not his point largely moot since Crosshouse doesn’t have a rail terminus either, but it did get me wondering if the detractor and deflector to your principal point was this guy impersonating a grafter for the BBC recently ?

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