Ferry bosses have confirmed an interest in launching a “Caledonian MacTrain” bid to run Scotland’s railways – minutes after apologising to customers for service chaos.
CalMac chiefs told MSPs yesterday that the board of the publicly-owned firm had discussed the possibility of taking on the ScotRail franchise, and that it “would be interested”.
Managing director Robbie Drummond and chairman David McGibbon revealed their growth ambitions as they appeared before Holyrood’s connectivity committee to explain recent disruption on west coast routes.
The performance of ScotRail’s current operator Abellio has been regularly criticised and Scottish ministers are reportedly considering a public sector bid to run the network.
Asked about a plan that has been dubbed “Caledonian MacTrain”, Mr McGibbon told the committee: “We’ve noted the comments and as far as rail is concerned, we don’t have any experience in rail.
“But in terms of developing the group, we would be interested in exploring the possibilities, and the board has discussed that, but only that.
“We would need to know an awful lot more about that, and what it entailed, and what the costs would be, and so on and so forth. But we would be interested, as a public sector body, without any commitment, to look at that.
“We’ve not had detailed conversations but we’ve indicated to Transport Scotland that we’re willing to talk.”
The remarks followed a grilling by committee members over the performance of CalMac services between the Hebrides amid uproar over service changes, often caused by problems with vessels, in recent weeks.
Mr Drummond said it had been the worst period the company had endured in eight years, and added: “I’d like to sincerely apologise to all of our customers for the inconvenience that has been caused.”
The committee was told one of the reasons for the problems was its “success”, with traffic on the network having grown by 37% over the last five years, partly due to the impact of cheaper fares under the road equivalent tariff scheme.
Mr Drummond promosed that CalMac has “learned a number of lessons”, including that communications were “not always as quick and accurate as we would’ve liked”, and that the ticket and reservation system “needs to be replaced”.
Conservative MSP Jamie Greene suggested the issues may raise alarm bells over any rail service takeover, saying: “We’ve just spent the last hour talking about a lack of resilience on our ferry service in Scotland, but you just said you’re interested in running our rail network.”
After the meeting, Green MSP John Finnie said there needed to be “wide scale replacement of the existing CalMac fleet” following the “astonishing” number of cancellations caused by mechanical breakdowns.