After hearing that Saturday’s 17:10 sailing left foot passengers behind, we have written to CalMac CEO Duncan Mackison. From all accounts (and photos), many people had to stand or sit on the floor for the entire crossing. Some passengers who had already boarded were asked to disembark, because the vessel’s passenger limit was exceeded. “Shambolic” was the description used.
We know that CalMac can only work with the boats they are given, but the Loch Frisa is totally inadequate as our ‘main’ vessel at any time of the year. You will be lucky to get sailings of your choice this side of mid-November. The situation appears to be made worse by poor handling by CalMac. Despite having spent millions of pounds on their new electronic ticketing system, it appears crew have to count passengers manually once boarded in order to know how many people they are carrying.
Meanwhile the Lochaline – Fishnish service is running beyond capacity due to traffic displaced from Craignure – Oban. The crew ran an additional sailing on Sunday night to clear the backlog. Once again, the Lochinvar comes to the rescue.
We have made several points to Mr Mackison –
- If nothing can be done to add capacity, then the situation at least needs to be better managed in the ports. If there are more foot passengers than the ship can carry, volunteers should be sought to be bumped to the next sailing – with free travel on multiple sailings of their choice to compensate.
- Farmers going to Oban market with livestock should not have to drive via Lochaline to get there – they need to be prioritised as a matter of animal welfare. Livestock trailers still can’t be booked online.
- We have asked for a guarantee that finally next winter, more than four years after its introduction, the two-vessel service we were promised is finally introduced.
There are two things that could help you if you can’t get on the sailing you need (aside from queuing at Fishnish) –
Medical Appointment Protocol
If you have a hospital or outpatient appointment you need to drive to or are being discharged from hospital, CalMac will help you. If the sailings you need to use are fully booked, ring CalMac and tell them you need to use th Urgent Medical Appointment Protocol. They should get you a booking for your car on the sailings you need. If they can’t do that, they will pay for a taxi for the mainland portion of your journey. See https://www.calmac.co.uk/en-gb/travel/urgent-medical-appointments/#/ .
If you have any difficulty accessing the Medical Appointment Protocol, email us.
Deck Space Priority Pilot (the 72 hour system)
The priority pilot scheme continues to run. 10% of deck space (that’s about 3 cars on the Frisa) is held back from sale until exactly 72 hours before departure. It’s like sniping a bargain on Ebay a moment before the auction ends. Far from perfect, but if you have to travel on a particular sailing, worth trying.
Finally, here’s a little somthing put together by Alasdair Satchell….
Things break and boats are no exception, the ferry’s also must have annual service work done. Sound management would take this into account and have the wit and wisdom to hire in a safe and adequate ” winter boat” for proven problem periods. I personally never understood why the nover owned a spare go anywhere boat in addition to the regular fleet.
I was booked on the 10.00am ferry last week for a hospital appointment. I took the bus from Tobermory which reached Craignure at 9.50. Was waiting in the tunnel and the ferry left!! I missed my consultation with my surgeon. When I asked in the office why the ferry had left early I was told, “I thought the Tobermory bus had arrived, so I let the ferry go!” It is not rocket science is it, to look to see what busses are in Craignure.
Public transport connectivity an absolute travesty. Bus, ferry and train staff all hate each other and will not yield or delay services to help passengers on tight incoming connections; despite the odd fabled story of it happening once a year, it doesn’t happen most days.
Shameful. I crossed on the 14.40 from Oban on Sunday, and having taken CalMac’s advice to book a late ferry in case of missing one’s preferred sailing, was pulled aside with others to be in a standby queue – as a foot passenger. We were thankfully allowed to board – there was plenty of space. The system should have shown that to the quayside ticket collector. It’s a fairly half-baked IT system that needs improvement. How much were the IT team paid to develop this clunky, crumby, hole-filled ticket booking system? Money badly spent. Had we been forced off this tiny ferry, the next crossing wasn’t until 18.00 hours. I’d not have been home (Fionnphort) before 20.00. The Loch Friosa is simply inadequate for the job – better used for Gigha or Lismore.