Professor John Robertson OBA
The Herald today has the above and:
Martin starts off the year with one of the most dishonest, maybe not infantile, but certainly primary school-level, adding up of costs over 11 years to get a big enough headline to impress his diminishing flock of readers.
See that ‘spiralling’ in the headline. Martin carefully does not reveal any spiral, just a comparison of the 2022/23 figure with the 2024/25 figure. Why is the 2023/24 figure hidden? Not small enough for the doubling claim? Why don’t we see the full eleven years of data? Does it reveal variation from year to year rather than a steady trend?
More important, is this unusual for a similar ferry service in comparable economies and climates in northerly latitudes?
Washington State Ferries, serving an archipelago of 20 terminals around Seattle with 21 vessels and BC Ferries in Canada serving 47 with 41 vessels are the best comparators with CalMac serving 50 with 36 vessels.
How do their maintenance costs, over the same 11 years compare?
Washington State – £334m. BC Ferries £1.2bn! Sources below.
Might the weather conditions justify higher wear and tear in British Columbia? No, it’s the opposite:
CalMac has more northerly, colder and stormier seas to sail in. It seem logical that their repair bills would be even higher.
Sources for Washington State Ferries (WSF) Spending Estimates
The estimates for routine direct maintenance and repairs (primarily from the operating budget) are derived from WSF’s official Route Statements and performance reports published by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT):
- Washington State Ferries Route Statements For Fiscal Years 2019 to 2024 (PDF, July 2025): https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/WSF-RouteStatements-FY2024.pdf
Provides detailed breakdowns of direct maintenance expenses (vessel and terminal), including increases due to drydocking, engine rebuilds, and other repairs. - Washington State Ferries Route Statements For Fiscal Years 2016 to 2021 (PDF, February 2022): https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/WSF-RouteStatements-FY2021.pdf
Covers earlier years with similar maintenance expense data.
Additional context on preservation backlogs, capital spending for major repairs, and challenges (e.g., aging fleet requiring more maintenance) comes from:
- WSDOT Gray Notebook reports on vessel and terminal conditions: https://wsdot.wa.gov/about/data/gray-notebook/gnbhome/preservation/ferriesvesselsandterminals/vesselconditions.htm
- Annual WSF Performance Reports (e.g., FY2024): https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-01/FY2024-WSF-Performance-Measures-Report.pdf
These documents separate routine operating maintenance from capital preservation projects.
Sources for BC Ferries Spending Estimates
BC Ferries’ capital expenditures (which include major vessel upgrades, overhauls, inspections, new vessels, and terminal infrastructure—encompassing much of the large-scale repair and maintenance work) are reported in press releases and financial filings:
- Year-end results for fiscal 2020 (ended March 31, 2020): $238.1 million CAD in capital expenditures: https://www.bcferries.com/news-releases/bc-ferries-releases-year-end-results
- Year-end results for fiscal 2022 (ended March 31, 2022): $171.3 million CAD in capital expenditures: https://www.bcferries.com/news-releases/bc-ferries-releases-year-end-results-2022
- References to multi-year performance terms (e.g., ~$842 million CAD in one prior term) and long-term maintenance projections (> $1 billion CAD lifetime for new vessels).
Full consolidated financial statements and Management’s Discussion & Analysis (MD&A) are filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) (www.sedar.com) and referenced on the BC Ferries Investor Relations page: https://www.bcferries.com/our-company/investor-relationsRoutine maintenance is part of operating expenses, while capital captures major lifecycle repairs and upgrades.
Source – https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=2007763311635419527
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Also in the Herald: 1600 babies born with drug addiction since 2017.
No going back 3 yrs or 5 yrs or even 10 yrs I could understand but 9yrs!! Looks as if they were having problems getting a biggish number if they only looked at a shorter time period.
Between this and the ferries they are really having to stretch to make any sort of story.
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Just 8 frigates have cost us £940 million in repairs
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Evidence? In Scotland, ‘us’?
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THE HERALD HAS STOOPED TO AN ‘ALL TIME’ LOW
NO POINT IN ASKING BUYERS OF THIS ONCE HONOURABLE NEWSPAPER
to COMPLAIN AGAINST THE SLIDE INTO oblivion
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£Billions wasted on HS2, Hickley Point, redundant weaponry, nuclear etc, £Billions lost on Brexit.
The ferries are saving monies on fuel. A better balance sheet.
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‘The ferries are saving monies on fuel‘ Really ? Please explain
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I wonder who the “campaigners” are who claim the system is “out of control” in the nation’s “ferry building fiasco”?
At least he got the nation bit right. I suppose “region” would have been out of the question.
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Nation when it’s propaganda SNP bad stuff, region when it’s propaganda BritNat all in it together, you’s get a ton of cash from England, down on your knees Scotland, media stuff.
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Aye, it’s pretty clear Holyrood polling has caused alarm among the investor class, and the order has gone out that every crewmember man the bilge pumps, and few better than Disabled-Semen Martin Williams for managing bilge…
Even the “11 year bill” is likely a construct of the beginning of one year and the end of the last, so in reality 10 years – Deduct the two figures he quotes from the headline, 261.34 – (50+25) and divide by 8 = 23.3 – Whoever wrote the draft of this nonsense for him, it’s akin to one of ACH-him’s spads at the annual party conference in a phone box – Yet clues to the author of this tripe lie in the inclusion of ‘campaigners’ in the blurb and ‘lifeline’ in the headline – Perchance yer man from South-Uist and his business associates ?
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Aye Bob, and ‘the investor class’ sounds quite fair, rather than “The Filthy Rich”, which many of us could say… However, we’re currently aware of a steadily growing desire for Scotland to regain our Independent place in the modern world, and that will be happening in the near future!
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It is quite a rare sight to witness just how far the Herald continues to “sink” as regards it’s vaunted “Trusted Quality Journalism” claims.
Quite who the Herald Management now see are their target audience given the current polling of both Labour and the Tories, is beyond me, but the Herald will fold if it sticks to its present path of contrived “SNP Bad” stories for some attempt at cheap click-bait.
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It hasn’t been about “target audience” for some considerable time, it’s about what those prepared to fund them require published in return.
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‘Ferries saving on fuel’. Google it. Battery powered. Hybrid. Saving on fuel.
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