Professor John Robertson OBA

The slavering feeding frenzy on Scotland’s west coast ferry system is a ‘never-ending storm of deception’ in places like the Herald and the Scotsman, today above:

Passengers on one of CalMac ’s busiest routes are facing a “never-ending storm of disruption” by being forced to switch several times between ports 15 miles apart.

They’re talking about the Arran ferry which thanks to a failure to maintain and improve Ardrossan harbour, owned by a millionaire Manchester billionaire, cannot take the new larger Glen Sannox ferry.

The nature of the ‘disruption’ is not clear but elsewhere has been expressed in longer sailing times to Troon and fewer of them.

These key facts have not been shared:

Apparently, according to a Bing search, Troon to Glasgow is 35 miles and 54 minutes by car. Ardrossan to Glasgow is also 35 miles but 52 minutes by car. Given that the Troon route is largely dualled and the Ardrossan route is largely single, I have my doubts about that. By train, it’s 1hr 20 from Ardrossan and only 40m from Troon.

So, lets just agree that Troon does not mean longer travel times by bus, car or train.

Sailing time? Troon to Brodick is 25 minutes longer, to have a pint in the bar safely, due to the less choppy more sheltered waters.

As for fewer sailings, see this:

CalMac has switched its main Arran ferry sailing from Ardrossan to Troon for four days as strong winds are forecast. Ferries struggle to dock at Ardrossan’s main berth when the wind blows from the east, and an alternative berth has been permanently closed for safety reasons. The main berth at Ardrossan, the Arran berth, is susceptible to bad weather and CalMac had warned of possible disruption to services in the coming days. But after a trial on Wednesday, the ferry operator announced that passenger sailings could now continue using Troon, about 20 miles further south, as an alternative harbour.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-68234115

Finally, other than the one MSP in the Scotsman piece, what evidence do we have of the islanders’ views, more widely? This:

Even on Arran, nearly 80% satisfied with CalMac ferries and dangerous weather is to blame for 96% of cancellations to once again expose the media stories as whopping fibs

I can’t believe I’ve missed out on the regular large-scale surveys of CalMac ferry performance, published but ignored by MSM, as they pursue a different agenda regardless of the facts, and fully transparent. Any journalist can scrutinise these surveys, demand all information, and report on any debates within them. Notably none ever do.

If you don’t trust these surveys, challenge CalMac for details of who did them, how they were done and get the raw data. They cannot refuse you. If you have something and can present it honestly, I promise to publish it.

In January 2025 and covering the period April 2024 to January 2025, 79.4% of 15 000 survey respondents on the Brodick/Ardrossan, Claonaig/Lochranza and Tarbert/Lochranza services.

Notably in the above period, all bar 2 of 43 cancellations on the Arran run were due to hazardous weather conditions.

For the fourth time today, it’s not a good match with the nonsense in the Herald or on BBC Scotland, is it?

The Herald wants to be trusted but, on this evidence it’d be better under the waves.

Source: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:ae05a889-5b06-4aee-9b0d-2299ee72afd8