Question reference: S5W-35351
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 19 February 2021
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Current status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 22 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many written complaints have (a) it and (b) CalMac received regarding the Arran ferry service since 2016.
Answer
The Scottish Government has identified in the region of 500 pieces of correspondence received between 2016 and January 2021 relating to the provision of ferry services provided by CalMac on the West coast of Scotland. However, it is not feasible to ascertain which of these are specific to the Arran ferry service.
The Ardrossan – Brodick route is the busiest route on the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) network and carried over 3 million passenger and over 760,000 vehicles between October 2016 and January 2021. CalMac, over the period October 2016 to January 2021 received around 870 complaints, relating to the Ardrossan - Brodick ferry route, concerning both the ports and vessels. This equates to just 0.03% of total passengers carried on this route or just fewer than 3 complaints for every 10,000 passengers travelling on the service.
In fact, CalMac has a strong reputation for customer service. As a testament to this, CalMac have won a number of awards since the start of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract in October 2016, such as Ferry Operator of the Year in 2018. CalMac have also received Worldhost Recognition for Excellent Customer Service as well as CCA Global Accreditation 5 years in a row up to 2020. All these awards are only made possible through the hard work, dedication and professionalism of CalMac staff.