THE return of a main vessel for a ferry route operated by a council has been put back until April - while a significant chunk of state-owned ferry operator CalMac's key vessels also remains out.
The Corran Ferry service is one of the busiest single-vessel ferry routes in the country, but its return to Lochaber has been delayed since January.
When the MV Corran is expected to return to service on the Highland Council-run route in Lochaber, it will have been out of action for at least six months.
It comes as a series of CalMac vessels have been out of action due to technical problems some of which have been discovered during annual overhauls.
A significant chunk of the key members of the CalMac ferry fleet were sidelined at the same time last week. Some have had issues since the turn of last year.
With ten vessels over 80 metres in length in the CalMac fleet - four were out of action last week.
The ten key vessels are MV Isle of Arran, MV Hebridean Isles, MV Isle of Mull, MV Lord of the Isles, MV Caledonian Isles, MV Isle of Lewis, MV Clansman, MV Hebrides, MV Finlaggan, and MV Loch Seaforth. These vessels usually operate on longer crossings, with high passenger numbers.
READ MORE: Jenny Gilruth warns £1.4bn ferry fiasco fix 'financially challenging'
Of those three MV Clansman, 30--year-old MV Caledonian Isles, the 38-year-old MV Hebridean Isles and 25-year-old MV Clansman are still known to be out of action due to technical issues.
Caledonian Isles is not expected back until March 31, no update on the condition of Hebridean Isles is expected till March 6 while MV Clansman is docked in Govan having her engine flushed out and inspected.
Video: Corran Ferry busy during the 2022 Scottish Six Day Trials
MV Corran carries more than 270,000 cars across Loch Linnhe each year and without it, drivers are forced to follow diversions of up to 86 miles.
The local authority said its return has been delayed since January due to a problem with its propulsion system.
MV Maid of Glencoul, a smaller, older ferry, has been covering the five-minute crossing of Loch Linnhe.
The problems with the 23-year-old ferry will affect those living in Ardgour, Sunart, Ardnamurchan, Morar, Moidart, Morvern, the Isle of Mull and Fort William who use the boat regularly.
READ MORE: No Scottish supply work priority in ferry contracts given to Turkey
Highland Council said it was hoped the main ferry could be back in early April.
A spokeswoman said: "It was a longer MV Corran refit this year, taking until January, largely due to extensive rebuilding of her 23-year-old ramps, specifically the one that lands on the Nether Lochaber side and experiences more wear due to the harsher weather conditions on that side of the narrows."
Parts have been ordered so the faulty propulsion unit can be rebuilt.
The spokeswoman said: "We are optimistic that the MV Corran will be back in service early April.
"If there are any further delays, the council will give an update as soon as possible with any necessary plans for contingency."
Jeff Forrester, who heads the Corran Narrows campaign, said locals were worried the state of the ferries in the area ahead of the busy tourist season.
He has been pushing for Highland Council to "start talking" to the community about the state of play.
Holyrood's transport committee was told last month the service was at breaking point.
MSPs heard the Corran Ferry's two aging vessels need to be replaced within the next three to four years.
Highland Council plans to run two new electric ferries on its service in Lochaber, but it has to find £62m to pay for them.
One ferry user group official said: "This shows that it is not just CalMac that is suffering due to a failure to replace. Public funds have to be made available to resolve this because the situation with our ferries has made us a laughing stock."
Scottish Conservative MSP for Highlands and Islands region Jamie Halcro Johnston said: “This delay to the Corran Ferry refit is a hammer blow to its users, one which will prolong the negative impact on the local economy.
“The Scottish Parliament was told last month that it was at breaking point, in large part due to the SNP Government’s neglect and underfunding of councils.
READ MORE: Ferguson Marine: Ferry firm race to comply with law to stop shutdown
“Six months is an unacceptable amount of time for a lifeline service such as this to be out of commission, particularly given the significantly reduced capacity and performance of the replacement vessel.
“It highlights the serious lack of resilience in Scotland’s ferry network and the need for immediate action to ensure that this kind of paralysing failure never recurs.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here