Seven years after the first Sabbath-busting ferry to the religious stronghold of the Isle of Lewis, there is to be a second Sunday service on the Stornoway to Ullapool route.
Just one ferry – leaving Stornoway at 2.30pm and returning from Ullapool at 6.30pm – has operated on the main route to the Outer Hebrides since 2009.
But today Caledonian MacBrayne announced that a second sailing would be introduced – leaving Stornoway at 8am and departing Ullapool at 11.30am – on the main summer weeks between June 26 and September 4.
It opens up the possibility of Sunday papers actually being available on the island on the day they are printed.
The new £42 million ferry, the MV Loch Seaforth, is used on the run.
Despite warnings from church leaders that they faced the wrath of god, tens of thousands of passengers have used the Stornoway to Ullapool Sabbath service on since it was controversially introduced in 2009.
Church groups had warned passengers to boycott Sabbath ferries to the Isle of Lewis or face God’s wrath! After introducing the service, Stornoway was hit by a tornado soon after – which entered the town at the ferry terminal – and some worshippers saw it as a sign of God’s anger.
State-owned CalMac introduced the first regular Sabbath service between Ullapool and Stornoway because it had been given legal advice that it was breaking the European Equality Act 2006 because it was discriminating against one section of the community.
Just one service on a Sunday currently operates from Stornoway – and is timed to avoid goods, like Sunday papers, reaching shops, which could add to the temptation to open.