A tourism boss on the Western Isles has said she believes the Scottish Government is starting to listen to its concern over ferry services.
Sarah Maclean, chief executive of Outer Hebrides Tourism, said while reputational damage had been done in the last few weeks – she sees a “little bit of hope” on the horizon.
However, she warned this year was the worst she had known for ferry cancellations and disruption to lifeline links across the west coast.
Last week the MV Hebrides was taken to Greenock for repairs – and in its wake a ferry reshuffle caused chaos across the network.
Speaking on Monday’s Good Morning Scotland programme on BBC Radio Scotland, Ms Maclean said: “We are hopeful there will be a resumed service, but I think everybody on the islands is wondering how long for?
Skye, Harris, Uist ferry set to return from today
“This endless disruption to timetables and short notice cancellations has now become part of island life unfortunately. Hopefully it is an improving picture but we will see how long it lasts.
She continued: “[This year is] absolutely worse, this situation has been mounting for a number of years now.
“The community here and the business sector have been warning this was on the horizon. We have had numerous short-notice cancellations, as I have said, changes to timetables and vessels rerouted and countless technical issues.
“It comes down to the simple fact it is a very ageing fleet, and for whatever reason the investment and forethought was not put into making sure the Calmac fleet was future proofed.
“So we have been warning for a number of years this was only going to become a worsening situation, and I think 2022 has unfortunately been the year we reached the tipping point.
She continued: “It has become extremely difficult. In some parts of the islands are definitely worse affected. We know that businesses and the community, especially the Uist and Harris have been directly affected very negatively by this.
‘It is a difficult, difficult time’
“Many businesses in Uist lost a lot of cancellations at the start of the visitor season, due to technical outages at Easter, that has run into a very unpredictable summer season.
“And we are now are facing the prospect of the main network of Skye, Uist and Harris being closed for nine months through the winter.”
The closure is due to a major overhaul of ports in the so-called Skye triangle of Skye, Harris and Uist.
Ms Maclean added: “In terms of a tipping point we have a perfect storm of factors that means things are suffering cancellations, losing bookings and reputational damage. It is difficult to pull back
“It is a difficult, difficult time.
“I think there has been a little bit of hope this week that ministers and senior officials are starting to listen and to actually really understand how critical this is. And a real knock on effect here for livelihoods, for community sustainability on the islands.
“So hopefully people are listening, action will follow.”
CalMac confirmed that the boat would return to the route today, departing Uig on Skye for an additional sailing at 7am.
Robbie Drummond, CalMac’s managing director, said: “The service is getting back to normal today.
“Everyone at Calmac is deeply sorry for what they have been going through.
“There is no easy choices when we have to redeploy our vessels.”
He added: “Right across our network are seeing a reduction in numbers. In 2019 we carried 5.7million and we believe that will be down by about 15% to 4.9million, we believe is to cost of living challenges and less commuters travelling.
“We are working very hard to maintain our current resilience, we see the new ferries to arrive in 2023/2024. It will be challenging for the next year.
“[In the future] we will retain one or two spare vessels, and a crew, that can sat there in ‘hot layup’ when they are needed.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The transport minister last week convened a resilience meeting with the local MP, MSP, councillor and other stakeholders including the Ferries Communities Board and Harris Development Ltd to discuss the issues relating to the outage.
“CalMac have added a number of additional sailings to help with essential supplies to the islands and we continue to work with CalMac and Cmal on potential resilience options for the fleet.
“This includes seeking potential second hand tonnage to improve operational resilience on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry routes.
“The previous charters of MV Arrow and recent purchase of the MV Utne – now MV Loch Frisa – are evidence of this ongoing commitment to improve and support the existing fleet in this way.”
He continued: “CalMac forms part of the local resilience partnership.
“They remain in close local contact with communities and hauliers and are working with them to prioritise the movement of essential supplies.
“This will be closely monitored, with feedback being obtained directly from island communities and local resilience partnerships providing a more rounded assessment of impact than transport operators alone can provide.
“CalMac also operated an additional sailing between Stornoway and Ullapool to help move freight.”
Conversation