3 thoughts on “Some facts on ferry services in the UK”

1. To be fair, I asked my AI app whether having 8 out of 42 vessels out of service was exceptionally poor or merely average.

   The response was not good for Calmac.

   Having 8 out of 42 ferries out of service (approximately 19%) is generally considered high and indicative of a challenging or poorly performing service, rather than average.

   Industry standards typically aim for higher availability, especially outside of planned off-season maintenance.

   For context, in early 2025, a situation where one-third of a fleet was out of action was described as an “exceptional” crisis, but even in that context, a 19% failure rate is significantly higher than desired levels.

   Here is an analysis of why this scenario is considered bad rather than average:

   Fleet Availability Standards: A well-managed ferry company usually has a small, planned number of vessels in dry dock, typically leaving the vast majority of the fleet operational to meet demand. 8 vessels out of action implies either poor maintenance planning or an ageing fleet experiencing high breakdowns.

   The “Ageing Fleet” Factor: If the ferry operator has an older fleet (e.g., average age over 20–25 years), 8 out of 42 might be a “normal” consequence of that specific company’s poor long-term investment, but it is still considered a bad operational scenario for reliability.

   Impact on Services: An 8-vessel reduction likely leads to significant service disruptions, cancellation of key routes, or a lack of resilience (no spare vessels for breakdowns), which is a common complaint for under-serviced, unreliable routes.

   Comparisons: In critical lifeline services (like in Scotland), having multiple major ships out of action at once (3 or more) is already considered a high-pressure, crisis situation.

   Conclusion: Unless it is the dead of winter and all 8 vessels are undergoing planned, quick fmaintenance, an 8/42 (19%) out-of-service rate is poor and suggests a significant lack of resilience and high operational failure.

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   1. A commonly cited benchmark for a well-managed fleet is about 95%+ availability, while 85–88% is described as more like an industry average in a one fleet benchmark; by that yardstick, 81% availability is below average.

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2. Apologies. AI gave me 42 vessels in total. Correct number seems to be 36, so 8 out is 22%, not 19%.

   Poor, but not that poor, as other comparisons posted on 29.3.26 show.

   I fear, however, two wrongs don’t seem to make a right …

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