Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Scottish Government submission of 24 June 2021
PE1872/A - Improve the reliability of island ferry services
Ministers fully understand customers’ and residents’ frustrations during periods of ferry disruption and want to emphasise the Scottish Government’s on-going commitment to supporting vital lifeline services. The new Minister for Transport, Graeme Dey MSP, made this one of his first priorities, meeting with local constituency MSPs, including Alasdair Allan for Na h-Eileanan an Iar.
The MV Loch Seaforth resumed service on the Stornoway-Ullapool route on Monday 31 May 2021 having been out of service since 14 April 2021. All vessels displaced to alternative routes to provide cover during this period moved back to their normal scheduled services from 3 June 2021. CalMac Ferries Ltd is investigating the cause of the breakdown. CalMac worked throughout the recent disruption to find ways to continue the freight and passenger service to the Outer Hebrides. CalMac strives to minimise the time that a vessel may be unavailable and seeks to make the best decisions to balance the needs of communities across the network, ensuring that island connectivity, including delivery of essential supplies, is maintained.
To address critical resilience issues in the short-term, Transport Scotland is exploring opportunities for chartering additional tonnage including working with CalMac to consider the chartering of the MV Pentalina to add resilience to the fleet as a whole. Berthing trials have taken place at a number of ports and CalMac have been consulting with the Arran and Mull communities to discuss deployment options – though I should stress that the primary objective of the charter is to improve the resilience of the fleet as a whole and enable CalMac to better respond when breakdowns and other disruption occurs, wherever on the network that is.
Looking ahead, the Scottish Government is committed to securing replacement vessels that will improve and enhance services, and increase the level of resilience and reliability within the fleet. To demonstrate this commitment, a long-term programme of investment in vessels and ports has been developed and is being delivered with the support of £580 million over the next 5 years, as part of the Scottish Government’s wider Infrastructure Investment Plan announced on 4 February 2021. It is envisaged that further funds will be required and made available in future years to support investment throughout this decade.
Transport Scotland, working with Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd and CalMac is making progress on the delivery of this investment programme. The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the new major vessels MV Glen Sannox and Hull 802. The Scottish Government continues to work with Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow to do everything it can to ensure that the vessels are delivered according to the revised delivery schedules, to contribute to the service and capacity improvements which our island communities depend on. This will include benefits to the Uists through capacity increases on the Uig-Tarbert/Lochmaddy services, supported by substantial Scottish Government investment at all three harbours.
The new Islay Vessel project will deliver a new major vessel for this busy route, providing additional capacity for the CalMac fleet. CMAL recently announced that this project is now moving into the procurement phase. Progress is also being made on other new vessel projects: phase 1 of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme will see up to 7 new vessels serving communities across the network; phase 2 will cover new vessels on both the Sound of Harris and Sound of Barra connections to the Uists.
Since the reinstatement of a Mallaig-Lochboisdale year round service in 2016, responding to community wishes in the Uists, this service has grown following some early reliability challenges. The vessel serving that route, as well as the Mallaig-Armadale crossing in summer, is approaching normal life expiry and a CMAL-led project to commission a replacement is underway; this is at an early stage and consultation with the Uists communities will be undertaken to inform the direction of the project. For completeness, a vessel replacement project for Gourock-Dunoon/Kilcreggan is well underway and one for Craignure-Oban is in its early stage.
The Transport Minister agrees that the important dialogue between MSPs, local authorities and other key stakeholders with himself and officials continues. As the Scottish Government addresses these key issues facing the ferries network.