How can a ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?

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By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS and Scotland’s only half-decent Ferry Correspondent

The Herald‘s Martin Williams, today, has :

Campbeltown anger at three-year cut to ‘lifeline’ CalMac ferry service – Ferry operators have come under fire for cutting ‘lifeline’ summer ferry services to a town for a third successive year – as vessel availability continues to be hit.

It takes 3 hours and 4 minutes to drive from Campbelltown around the coast to the nearest big city, Glasgow (see above).

How long does the drive from Glasgow and the ferry from Ardrossan take?

It takes 1 hour and 10 minutes longer, not counting the waits for embarking and disembarking.

Finally, why did CalMac make this cut. Could it be because to do otherwise would mean the tax-payer massively subsidising another ferry that operates less than half empty most of the time, like these:

CalMac ferries so generously subsidised and over-sized that tiny winter island traffic is unaffected by a temporary safety limit
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5 thoughts on “How can a ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?”

  1. The ”Lifeline” in this report is that which has been thrown to those who continually , without evidence , berate CalMac and the Scottish Government .

    Clearly in this instance with the withdrawal of one ferry the Scottish Minister for Transport should have pulled a replacement out of her arse , according to the unionist Greek Chorus !

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  2. One has to admire the chutzpah exemplified by use of the phrase ‘lifeline’ summer ferry services’!

    What has been happening to ‘life’ without this ferry service in Autumn, Winter and Spring?

    I wonder if there are stats on patronage etc. of the ferry service between Campbeltown and Ardrossan from when it was last run? It would be useful to compare these with the findings of a formal evaluation of a piloted service which ran from May to September between 2013 and 2015

    Source: https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/1455/amfc-monitoring-evaluation-campbeltown-march-2016.pdf

    Para 1.2.1. Patronage:

    • ‘Around 10,000 passengers and 2,000 cars used the summer service each year
    • ‘As a benchmark, patronage is of a similar magnitude to the Oban-Colonsay service (around 9,500 passengers and 3,000 cars) over the summer period but significantly below Ardrossan-Brodick (around 430,000 passengers and 85,000 cars) over the summer period.’

    Para 1.2.3. Objective: Transport choices and links:

    • ‘The ferry service has provided an alternative transport link to the Central Belt of Scotland for the Campbeltown area. It is estimated to provide a significant journey time saving of 50 minutes compared to travelling by road. In 2015, 53 per cent of
      ferry users said that the reason for using the ferry service was to save journey time.
    • ‘The ferry service has provided an alternative to travel by car with 88 per cent of users typically having made the journey by car prior to the ferry service, 24 per cent used an alternative ferry route; 22 per cent typically used the bus and 8 per cent travelled by air.’ (The 24% using alternative ferry routes would be using services available. all year round.)

    Para 1.2.4. Objective: Tourism

    • ‘The majority of users are tourists with 61 per cent of users travelling for tourism purposes. This means that around 6,000 of the 10,000 passenger journeys made per summer are tourist related.’

    Now the above statistics point to a not insignificant level of use and they were sufficient at the time to justify the continuation of the service beyond the pilot. But ‘lifeline’? Need for a tighter definition me thinks!

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  3. Public transport is not just for people with cars. 

    The bus takes 4 1/2 hours

    If you insist on comparing public transport journey times with driving we would shut down most of the bus and train network in the country.
    I don’t think the term lifeline is helpful as Calmac is not resilient enough to be considered a lifeline

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  4. I did feel the first comment to Disabled-Semen Williams piece summed it up rather nicely – ” Tired rehash of his usual slanted nonsense. The Ardrossan- Cambeltown service started as an expirment by Calmac in 2013. There is an extensive bus service from Glasgow to Cambeltown which is on the mainland and two flights a day from Glasgow. Lifeline? Only for a hack regurgitating a story.”

    Herewith the “Exclusive by Martin Williams”, cough, it would appear it is Valerie Nimmo who is boosting the hyperbole, being quoted as saying “We are once again being left in the lurch, despite no recollection on my part of ever seeing her on the Munsters… https://archive.ph/fqtxn

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