CalMac: Public inquiry demand as costs of emergency ferry support spirals 40-fold in a decade

Islanders have this week complained of empty food shelves in stores as communities have been hit by the failings of the flagging fleet.

New figures seen by the Herald show that it has cost the taxpayer nearly £500,000 in the first six months of 2020/21 alone - compared to just 31,000 the previous full year and just 13,000 for the whole of 2010/11.

The vast bulk of the new bill came as a result of the £472,3176.71 that was spent to charter an emergency ferry from an Isle of Man government-owned company for eight weeks last summer to help support Scotland's beleaguered fleet and help maintain lifeline passenger and freight services last year.

The charter of MV Arrow did not include the 10 days it was out of action after even it needed a repair.

READ MORE: No food: Islanders alarm over empty supermarket shelves as CalMac ferry services are hit

The deal over the ferry was struck with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited said to be the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, which celebrated its 190th anniversary in 2020.

Meanwhile, since the start of the current CalMac ferry franchise in 2016, the cost of repairs and maintenance has risen by 23% to a whopping £17,262,000 a year. Over the past five years, the total cost of repairs was £83.6m.

The revelation has come in the wake of growing anger over a "waste" of public money over Scotland's ferry-building fiasco and after state-owned shipyard firm Ferguson Marine admitted there is set to be even more delay and extra cost implications because of cabling concerns on one of two lifeline ferries being built.

MV Arrow

The state-controlled ferry operator CalMac has said it was "disheartening" to hear of island communities suffering from the disrupton to services in recent weeks and was doing all it could to reduce the impact.

And Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the council covering the Western Isles has accused senior management of CalMac of deciding to “hunker down” away from the islands and breaking a promise to engage with the local authority.

New data seen by the Herald reveals that in 2019, before the pandemic hit, around one in 29 scheduled sailings were cancelled. Out of 163,878 sailings just 5652 were cancelled.

But since then the rate of cancellations has shot up to just over one in 16 as concerns surfaced over the viability of the ageing ferry fleet.

In 2021, there were 155,199 scheduled sailings with 9351 cancellations and in 2020 there were 119,988 planned trips with 7434 cancelled.

The collapse in August, 2019 of Ferguson Marine Engineering (FMEL) led by tycoon Jim McColl, which runs the last remaining shipyard on the lower Clyde, came amid soaring costs and delays to the construction of two lifeline island ferries and resulted in its nationalisation by the Scottish Government.

The cost of both vessels has doubled to around £200m while their delivery is nearly five years late.

Highlands and Islands MSP Edward Mountain, the former convenor of the rural economy and connectivity committee which branded the ferry procurement management process a "catastrophic failure" said the figures lay bare the failings of the ferry service and said there should be a full public inquiry.

“It has been a year of woe for our island communities, whose daily lives have been disrupted by an aging ferry fleet which is highly susceptible to breakdowns," he said. “This new data is yet more proof that the lack of new vessels is having a serious impact on ferry services. The SNP Government have failed to renew the fleet and build resilience into our ferry network.

“Many of these ferries are operating beyond their intended lifespan. Older boats require more maintenance, but there’s also longer breakdowns and lengthier repair times too.

“No one would expect the First Minister to travel to work in a 30 year old car, but the SNP Government are expecting islanders to rely on thirty year old ferries.

“Island communities are suffering the consequences of the SNP’s lack of forward planning. This is unacceptable and that again is why we need a full public inquiry to investigate this ferry fiasco.”

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has said islands were at "crisis point as widespread chaos" engulfed ferry services throughout the Inner and Outer Hebrides in recent days as a result of over-runs in the CalMac dry docking schedule and the breakdown of MV Hebrides.

It called for urgent action from Calmac and Scottish Government to ensure lifeline service is restored and a community voice is listened to.

It comes as it emerged problems with the starboard main engine of the 21-year-old MV Hebrides has meant that the suspension of services to and from Uig on Skye and Lochmaddy in North Uist will last till Sunday. Engineers were carrying out repairs on the vessel which can carry 612 passengers and 90 cars on Thursday and CalMac said they were continuing to investigate "contengency plans".

On Friday four lifeline services were suspended by 3pm partly due to weather and partly due to the MV Hebrides breakdown, after three on Thursday and eight the previous day.

A substantial amount of emergent steelwork has also been discovered on another of the fleet's elderly statesman, the 25-year-old MV Clansman in dry dock, and this has delayed her return by three weeks.

But Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has said even when the weather was not bad, ferry breakdowns and delays to new ferries left island communities vulnerable.

CalMac has said unforeseen ferry faults have been partly to blame for disruption to lifeline services in recent weeks which has resulted in islanders raising concerns about empty food shelves.

It said: "We are now well into the third week of extreme and unprecedented weather conditions - one of the longest periods of very poor weather and high significant wave height for many years," the ferry operator said.

"We are experiencing technical faults with some vessels that require urgent repair. In addition, some of our statutory annual overhauls are delayed, while engineers solve unforeseen issues presented during detailed surveys.

"We will continue to work with local communities to ensure their priorities around the transportation of goods and services are understood and supported. Our dedicated frontline staff are talking every day to our regular customers to make sure that essential goods and services are being moved.

"We understand how much our customers and the communities we serve rely on ferry services. Getting ferries working as they should be is our absolute priority, and we thank you for your patience and understanding at what we know is a really difficult time."

Transport Scotland said Scottish ministers, and the board of state-controlled David MacBrayne Limited, which owns CalMac were listening to islanders.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “We recognise the fragility of some supply chains serving island communities and understand the anxiety that disruption to ferry services can cause.

“We are aware of the additional staffing pressures faced by operators due to the Covid pandemic impacting on staff availability because of sickness and self-isolation.

“Every effort is made to avoid cancellations and breakdowns, but it is impossible to completely remove the risk of this happening in technically complex vessels. During times of disruption, we always seek to work with operators to deliver additional sailings wherever possible.

“We acknowledge the ferry fleet is aging and as such we are delivering new tonnage to support our communities by working with CMAL, CalMac, MSPs, community representatives and others to develop investment programmes - at least £580 million over the next five years - for major vessels and small vessels.”