Professor John Robertson OBA, Island Cycling Correspondent of the Year
In the Herald today:
Residents of Cumbrae have reacted to plans by state-owned operator CalMac which they say will “further damage fragile island communities”. The Cumbrae Ferry Committee, which represents residents in Millport – the only town on Cumbrae – say CalMac’s proposal to introduce scheduled maintenance windows during normal working hours of the Cumbrae ferry — either six hours each week or a full 24-hour period each month – would reduce vital lifeline services that the island depends on.
CalMac‘s Largs to Cumbrae (pop 1 500) and back service, 52 crossings, peak, and 33 off peak, each way with 15 min turnaround:
https://www.calmac.co.uk/en-gb/route-information/largs-cumbrae-slip-millport/#/
The proposal based on safety grounds, is to reduce the number of crossings by one half day per week, one fourteenth per week or 7% to thus leave 48 and 30 crossings per day, with the bigger MV loch Shira – 36 cars and 250 passengers.
In 2024, the crossing carried 700 00 passengers, 195 000 cars, 795 buses and 5 600 commercial vehicles:
So averaging the peak and off-peak service to 40 each way, 80 per day, over 365 days, is around 29 000 crossings.
In those crossings, the Loch Shira could take 7.2 million passengers but only had 700 000, one tenth capacity. She could have taken 1 million cars but only took just over 200 000 (I know buses and lorries are bigger but there were very few of those), one fifth capacity.
So to sum up, to improve safety and to allow maintenance workers to work in daylight, a service funded by all of us to run at only 20% capacity, cannot stand a 7% reduction in service without risking its ‘lifeline‘ status?
Bollards!
I know there are long queues on a few sunny weekends and holidays but quite a few of those car drivers, to my mind, should be using the island buses or put their feet and bottoms on bicycle seats, on those days, to get around this tiny place.
And no fn SUVs forcing the cyclists into the gutter!
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Aye, who knew every resident on Cumbrae was living in ‘fear’ of options being discussed with CalMac to “reduce unplanned maintenance, which is disruptive and can lead to vessels being removed from service”- By the time Craig Williams has finished with this snippet from a member of the Cumbrae Ferry Committee, and applied the Herald-hyperbole, the result is ‘ Islanders fear CalMac ferry plan will cut lifeline routes ‘ https://archive.ph/3IVgX
Aye, bollards right enough………
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A quick search of the Cumbrae Ferry group pulls up one of their documents with their leaders name. Searching on that individual, top of the results is a Daily Mail article from 2023 where he’s platformed to bitch at the SNP over ticket prices, moaning that if you had to travel every day for work it (220 days a year) it would cost £790 a year.
I did a quick search for Isle Of Wight prices and the same 220 trips would cost over £6800.
Here’s my personal thoughts – if you need a ferry to get to work every single day why do you live on a fucking island and expect the public to subsidise you?
Rgds,
Graham
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