CalMac update over Western Isles ferry shake-up plans following MV Isle of Lewis trials on Skye triangle

CalMac update over Western Isles ferry shake-up plans following outcome of MV Isle of Lewis trials on Skye triangle

22 March 2024

Planned changes to Barra, North Uist and Harris ferry arrangements are no longer feasible CalMac has revealed.

The shipping operator provoked uproar by seeking to remove MV Isle of Lewis from Barra and install her on the Skye triangle route. The smaller and under powered MV Isle of Arran was pencilled-in to take over the Castlebay - Oban link.

The movement would release MV Hebrides to take up the role of main vessel on the Ardrossan - Arran link while their ferry, MV Caledonian Isles, requires substantial steelwork repair while rules her out of action for a very lengthy period this summer.

However, berthing trials this week with MV Isle of Lewis at Uig, Tarbert and Lochmaddy harbours were not favourable towards maintaining a decent ferry service to the community.

A number of “significant challenges” emerged during the pier and linkspan tests.

CalMac confirmed: “It will not be possible to deliver a resilient service with the vessel operating on that route.”

“This means that, other than the period where MV Finlaggan enters overhaul, we anticipate no further changes to the summer timetable other than those already published to support Feis Ile on Islay.”

CalMac explained: “The scope for upgrades on the Little Minch specify MV Isle of Lewis as a 'secondary vessel.'

“This means that whilst the vessel may be able to get alongside the berth, the berth fit may be less than ideal.

“What this effectively means is that, whilst the vessel may be able to operate from these ports, it could pose significant challenges and that is what we have found.”

MV Isle of Lewis conducted berthing trials at Uig, Lochmaddy and Tarbert on Tuesday.

At the Skye port she went alongside the berth on her port side and then on her starboard side, testing her fit with the linkspan both stern-in and bow-in.

However, the vessel’s vehicle ramp and the linkspan interface were shown not to be a satisfactory fit and would be limited to smaller vehicles only such as passenger cars and vans rather than commercial.

Issues also arose with the use of the gangway onto the pier meaning travellers would likely have to board and disembark through the car deck.

The ferry’s car ramp could not be landed at the Lochmaddy linkspan due to a negative fit. In addition, a wind speed limitation would have to be imposed due to navigational hazards on approach to the North Uist berth which means running a regular timetabled service would not be possible.

Poor results also emerged at Tarbert, with the ship liable to wind speed operational limits - because of navigational hazards near the pier berth - are at a level which curtails the possibility of running a timetable, particularly during the busy summer season. CalMac deemed the weather restriction as “out of tolerance navigational constraints on approach.”

Although the vessel can operate to and from Uig on a bow-in basis, the need for compliance with the service constraining wind limitations imposed by the navigational considerations for both Lochmaddy and Tarbert would not provide a reliable timetabled service emphasised CalMac.

Additionally, for the Tarbert leg, only being able to operate bow-in would require traffic to reverse off the vessel with the effect of extended turnarounds and reduction of service.

Operating stern-in at Uig, and accepting a less resilient service that would not include commercial vehicles, or larger domestic vehicles, would only transfer the requirement for reversing traffic to the Lochmaddy leg.

CalMac said: “Therefore, our summer deployment plan is unchanged from what we shared a couple of weeks ago.

“Our hope had been that, if successful, the trials would have allowed us to amend the timetable and provide additional capacity and resilience to services to Arran.”

CalMac added: “I realise that this continues to be an uncertain time for our communities and customers and I am very sorry for the prolonged period of disruption we are currently suffering.”