Letter to The Ileach from Phil Preston - Operations Director of Caledonian MacBrayne following the redeployment of the Isle of Arran on 31st May
Dear Editor
31 May and Monday 1 June, I thought it might be helpful if I let you know
the rationale behind the decisions that were taken.
Firstly, let me stress that the decision to move one vessel to another
route is never taken lightly, and is only done in exceptional
circumstances. As you are aware, MV Clansman suffered a technical
breakdown en route to Coll and Tiree on Friday 29 May, and the knock-on
effect from this caused significant disruptions around the network.
Indeed, not only were services to Coll and Tiree affected, but also Barra,
South Uist, Mull and Colonsay, as well as additional traffic and, in some
cases delayed or additional sailings on the Uig-Lochmaddy, Barra - Eriskay
and Lochaline - Fishnish routes.
The situation was exacerbated by the high volumes of traffic on all routes,
caused largely by the end of the spring holiday.
The decision to redeploy MV Isle of Arran was taken at 1100 on Saturday,
but it was agreed at that time that the vessel would not leave the Islay
route until completion of that days' timetable, given the high volumes of
bookings. The vessel was redeployed on completion of the 1800 sailing,
upon arrival at Kennacraig, and returned to immediate service from
Kennacraig just before midday on Monday 1June. This led to the following
disruptions:
Sunday 31 May
0900 ex Kennacraig - cancelled
1250 ex Port Ellen - cancelled
2030 ex Port Ellen - additional sailing
Monday 1 June
0700 ex Port Ellen - cancelled
0945 ex Kennacraig - cancelled
MV Isle of Arran is CalMac's spare vessel and, although she is currently
deployed on the Islay route, the fact that this was an unforeseen set of
circumstances meant that there was no alternative, other perhaps than to
leave one or more islands without a ferry service until MV Clansman
returned to service.
Clearly passengers travelling to and from Islay on the above sailings were
inconvenienced, but, given the complex situation that we found ourselves
in, we believed the best decision was to re-organise the fleet, so that no
island was left without a ferry.
We very much regret this inconvenience, and, as I mentioned previously, the
decisions taken to redeploy ferries, including MV Isle of Arran, were taken
only after high-level discussions with the aim of minimising inconvenience
around the network.
Phil Preston
Managing Director
Caledonian MacBrayne
