Improved ferry services across the west coast for this summer have now been finalised between Transport Scotland, local communities and ferry operator CalMac.
Extensive community consultation has taken place since the draft timetable was launched two months ago and the revised version now more closely meets with the vast majority of island communities' wish list of services.
“This is a major step forward in meeting the aspirations of the Uist community and indeed the outer island chain,” said chairman of Storas Uibhist and spokesperson for Better Ferries For Lochboisdale, Angus MacMillan.
“I would like to thanks Cal Mac and Transport Scotland for recognising the concerns and addressing these capacity problems.
“These improvements will go a long way to setting in motion the longer term aspirations and we look forward to working closely with the ferry operator to deliver those.”
The main enhancements for this year are:
Detailed amendments to the timetables made during the consultation process included: continuation of the tri island service between Tiree Coll and Barra, earlier and later departures for Coll, a change in vessel for Colonsay, increased capacity and frequency of service on the Mallaig Armadale route and the MV Loch Seaforth to carry out two additional weekend Stornoway Ullapool sailings.
CalMac's operations director, Drew Collier said: “While our initial timetable met a lot of aspirations from the communities we serve. we needed to get out into the network, speak to them, and closely refine them to meet their exact needs as much as possible.
“This has been a detailed and time consuming process and I would like to thank everyone for their patience. I'm confident that given the resources we have, we now have in place for this summer a timetable that will meet the needs of commuters, business and visitors better than ever before.”
Cal Mac confirms improved summer timetable
13 January 2016