Despite ferry operator CalMac’s best efforts at re-organising ferry deployment plans, Arran will be left with the diminished capacity offered by MV Isle of Arran and MV Alfred over the busy summer season.
The Arran Ferry Committee has described the situation as “totally unacceptable” and “disappointing”.
The restricted summer timetable was released earlier this month, however, ferry bosses had hoped they could provide the required additional capacity on their busiest route by swapping MV Isle of Arran for the larger MV Hebrides.
This was dependent on MV Isle of Lewis successfully completing berthing trials at Uig, Tarbert and Lochmaddy which could then allow for MV Hebrides to be redeployed.
Unfortunately, the berthing trials at Uig, Tarbert and Lochmaddy all proved to be suboptimal or not possible, which has left Arran having to make do with MV Isle of Arran and MV Alfred which will operate to and from Troon from March 29 up to and including August 21.
Speaking at the time, a CalMac spokesperson said: “While current data on passenger and traffic volumes on the service indicates that for periods of the summer timetable there will still be sufficient capacity to meet demand, there may be constraint at peak periods and some customers may not be able to attain their preferred sailing time.”
However, anecdotally, passengers are already reporting a lack of availability and issues with booking travel less than two weeks in advance. Accommodation providers have also reported a decline in bookings over the Easter period on their social media channels and lay the blame squarely on ferry unavailability.
Tommy Gore, CalMac network resilience manager, said: “Our summer deployment plan is unchanged from what we shared a couple of weeks ago.
"Our hope had been that, if successful, the trials would have allowed us to amend the timetable and provide additional capacity and resilience to services to Arran.
"We appreciate this is leading to constraints on the early morning sailings to and from Arran and apologise for this.”
The loss of Arran’s usual vessel MV Caledonian Isles which is undergoing massive repair work, has left the Ardrossan to Brodick route with reduced capacity and the complete cancellation of the service from Ardrossan to Campbeltown.
CalMac has, however, managed to provide additional sailings on the Islay route with extra sailings being offered at the beginning and the end of the annual Fèis Ìle festival during May and June.
Pauline Blackshaw, director of strategy and change for CalMac, said: “We have been liaising regularly with fèis organisers and the Scottish Whisky Association about issues with capacity and I am pleased we have managed to find a solution thanks to a lot of work from our teams.
“However, as our service is stretched to its absolute limit, these additional sailings have only been made possible by altering services on other routes.
"I am sorry for any disruption this may cause to customers. We are most grateful for their understanding.
“The network, and particularly Islay, will soon benefit from new vessels which will help to provide the resilient service communities deserve.
"Until they are operational, we will continue to do whatever we can to provide a reliable service.”
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