Scottish Citylink Ullapool service

Western Isles Council will pay Scottish Citylink to lay on an extra bus in a bid to avoid Stornoway ferry passengers being stranded on the mainland.

Travellers regularly complain about being left behind on the operator’s Inverness to Ullapool service which meets the ferry.

Numerous foot passengers have been caught out just turning up without a ticket on the twice daily service.

In one recent case, other travellers had a whipround to pay the £80 taxi fare for a couple to go from Inverness to Ullapool.

Council paying for extra bus on Ullapool ferry route

5 July 2016

Cal Mac staff at Stornoway - who take seat bookings for Citylink - bear the brunt of people’s frustration when told there is no room on the bus.

Citylink, which does not get a subsidy to run the service, has long stopped its traditional practice of having another vehicle on standby just in case the first one is full.

However, it does provide an additional coach if all seats are reserved more than 48 hours before departure.

It also deploys an extra bus on the route every Friday, Saturday and Monday over the summer.

The new arrangement only kicks in when travellers turn up without a ticket and the strong message is for passengers to pre-book in plenty of time.

As it is unprofitable to operate a bus just for a handful of surplus people, the council and regional transport authority, Hitrans, will make up the shortfall if Citylink is asked to lay on a special coach on the busy Ullapool - Inverness route.

Demand will be gauged by monitoring the Citylink computerised booking system. This shows seats filling up and if coaches are likely to have no room left for unbooked passengers.

An extra bus and driver will be called-in, as long as they are available at such short notice.

Hitrans and the council accept it is "not commercially viable for the operator to ensure that sufficient capacity could always be provided for anyone expecting to travel without a booking."

Iain Mackay, chair of the council’s transportation committee, said: “We very much welcome the co-operation of Scottish Citylink and the opportunity to collaborate with Hitrans in seeking to reduce the likelihood of passengers being stranded in either Inverness or Ullapool.

"We do however need to emphasise that, for operational reasons, this additional capacity cannot in any way be completely guaranteed by the operator.

"There remains a very real imperative that all passengers should make every effort to book as far in advance as possible of when they intend to travel from either Inverness or Ullapool.”