Ferry Good …

… or maybe not! Arran is becoming known as the “Poor Man of the Clyde” after an abysmal performance by the CalMac ferry during January. We had the Hebrides for three weeks whilst the Caledonian Isles went for her annual survey and refit in Birkenhead and she suffered almost as many cancellations as she made sailings; and this from a ship which is used to sailing in much worse conditions on the Uig triangle.

The summary of statistics for January show that there were 69 amber and 75 cancelled sailings (25.7%). There were three days with no sailings at all and eleven days when the 07:00 ex-Ardrossan was cancelled so the post and papers were late. One minor consideration was that there were four additional sailings: two evening sailings to return to Brodick and two early mornings to compensate for delays.

The problems of entering Ardrossan harbour in adverse weather conditions are well known, but why is there no viable “Port of Refuge” for the Arran service?

Click here for January statistics.     Click here for performance trends.

The above figures are based on personal observations and text alerts issued by CalMac and have not been verified, but we believe them to be accurate. Note that the additional sailing shown as ex-Ardrossan at 20:30 on Wednesday 28th January was actually an 05:40 sailing ex-Brodick on 29th January (not enough lines in the spreadsheet!).