Following on from the ‘Riders of the Storm’ feature in Transport News, it seems CalMac cannot catch a break as it has to juggle its vessels and services to deal with an ‘exceptional’ set of circumstances, writes Peter Brown.
It doesn’t make good reading for hauliers who serve the western isles.
Around a third of CalMac’s large vessels are currently out of action, explained chief executive Duncan Mackison, with delays to repairs and a host of new issues discovered during the ship’s annual maintenance checks.
To help plug the considerable hole in its seagoing service, the deal for the privately-owned catamaran Alfred has been extended to the end of May.
On top of that, the summer-only Ardrossan-Campbeltown service remains suspended for a third year.
MV Caledonian Isles sails the Arran route and has been out of action since last February. It won’t be back now until late April at the earliest because of newly discovered issues with the tubes for its propeller shafts.
The Barra vessel MV Isle of Lewis needs steelwork replaced, and will not return to service until late March, a month later than expected.
MV Clansman has also been slightly delayed in overhaul, while MV Isle of Mull is restricted to just 45 passengers due to problems with its emergency evacuation systems, which will not be fixed until mid-May at the earliest.
Duncan Mackison said: “Challenges with several vessels in the fleet have converged at the same time, creating a significant capacity issue which leaves us with difficult choices to make in terms of service provision.
“Given the age of our fleet and the need to overhaul all vessels outside of the busy summer season, our vessels are spending a record amount of time in overhaul this winter.
“This stretches our services and, when unplanned delays such as those we’re experiencing with MV Isle of Lewis and MV Clansman are factored in, our resources to the limit.
“With MV Isle of Lewis and MV Clansman delayed in overhaul, MV Isle of Mull operating a reduced capacity and MV Caledonian Isles still in for repairs, we’re operating with approximately one third of our major vessels unavailable or carrying restrictions.
“Despite this we are maintaining core services to all island communities.”
The lack of vessels means a Troon-only service to Arran will continue with the MV Glen Sannox and MV Alfred.
Ardrossan will reopen when MV Caledonian Isles returns in service.
All four new large CalMac vessels being built in Turkey are delayed and will require weeks of crew familiarisation trials before entering service, and the MV Glen Sannox’s sister ship MV Glen Rosa is due for delivery in September.
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