Chamber and committees

Petition 1872: Improve the Reliability of Island Ferry Services

Letter from the Minister for Transport to the Convener, 21 January 2022

Dear Dean,

Thank you for your letter 16 December 2021 regarding the above petition and raising a series of questions, I will take each in turn below.

1. Whether there has been an assessment of the impact the disruption has had on island economies and on islanders’ access to health and social care.

We work closely with our operators to understand and mitigate the impact of any disruption on an ongoing basis. We understand the impact that any disruption, no matter how small, can have on the sustainability, growth and well-being of these communities and endeavour to take appropriate action as quickly as possible to minimise any potential negative effects.

Serco NorthLink Ferries (SNL) and CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) operators do their best to assist passengers with a need to travel, particularly those with medical appointments, and will always do everything possible to accommodate passengers on alternative sailings. Both operators also work with Local Resilience Partners to ensure any issues are highlighted and a speedy resolution sought.

CFL has an Urgent Medical Appointment Protocol in place which supports customers to ensure they can attend urgent NHS medical appointments, even when they are unable to book a car on the required sailing. In the event customers find themselves having to travel for a medical appointment with less than seven days' notice and are unable to book a vehicle, customers should contact the Customer Care centre directly.

Further to my original response, Scottish Ministers agreed to the short-term chartering by CFL of freight Ro-Ro ferry MV Arrow, with funding from the Scottish Government. The first charter was during the summer and this was to increase route resilience, provide temporary additional capacity following significant service disruption and support island economic recovery from Covid. The vessel over the summer was chartered for the period 16 July - 9 September, however during this time she was out of service and undergoing repairs for 10.5 days. The vessel was chartered for a second time to cover the period when the MV Loch Seaforth was in dry dock, and covered the period 2-8 November 2021.

Adding a freight ferry to the Stornoway-Ullapool routes for peak summer enabled the existing vessel, MV Loch Seaforth, to operate more sailings which were open to residents, visitors and their vehicles, improving capacity, frequency and connectivity during the short summer months of peak demand for travel to and from Lewis.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) has received four compliant bids for a tender to build two new vessels for Islay and Jura. Four shipyards were invited to tender for the work in September; Damen Shipyards in Romania, Remontowa Shipbuilding in Poland, and Sefine Denizcilik Tersanecilik Turizm, and Cemre Marin Endustri in Turkey. Each submission will now be rigorously assessed against quality, technical and commercial criteria, and the contract will be awarded to the winning shipyard at the end of March 2022.

The Islay route is one of the busiest services for freight on the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) network and the two new ferries will support the island’s vital economic activity. Sufficient passenger accommodation will be designed to meet an anticipated increase in passenger demand. They will have greater vehicle capacity than the current vessels on the route, and will have significantly lower energy requirement. They will be designed with a clear focus on freight, including the capability to operate a possible overnight freight service forecasted 2028/29. This also provides the opportunity to cascade one of the current vessels to another route to strengthen the network resilience.

2. What discussions you have had with Calmac or others about lessons learned from disruption to services in recent months and how the service can be improved

I have met several times with CFL senior managers and the DML/CFL board and I have emphasised to them the importance of communications and customer service during periods of disruption. I have also met with local Councillors, MSPs and a wide range of key island stakeholders to discuss the issues and what we and CFL can do to address the challenges being faced. Transport Scotland will also continue to engage with the already established channels such as the Independent Community Board and the local ferry groups, allowing communities’ voices to be heard and listened to.

We recognise the concerns around technical issues affecting the CHFS network and Transport Scotland is in constant contact with CFL in efforts to address any disruptions. We apologise for the difficulties these disruptions give to communities and would add that recently this has, in part, been exacerbated by supply chain issues. We continue to push for early resolution of such issues and to ensure that CFL’s resilience plans are in place.

3. What plans and contingencies does the Scottish Government have in place (whether or not in partnership with Calmac) to prevent or mitigate a repeat of this disruption in 2022, with particular reference to the holiday season and the increased demands on services that that brings.

I can confirm that a range of plans are in place including:

• Extra resilience will be provided by the MV Loch Frisa
• We are doubling the number of return sailings from Mallaig-Lochboisdale on 3 days of the week.
• We are considering additional short-term vessel charters, but those will depend on additional funds.
• CFL has restricted motorhomes/caravans (defined as any motorhome vehicle regardless of size that has sleeping/cooking facilities or caravans of any length) from standby queues across their network with effect from Monday 2 August 2021. This was a request from island stakeholders.
• This change will provide a fairly small benefit to on-board capacity, but may assist some islanders looking to travel with a car at short notice. A primary benefit will be supporting port staff to efficiently manage marshalling areas and to improve the overall experience for customers.
• The Scottish Government is committed to maintaining and improving lifeline ferry services that play a key role in supporting the economic, social and cultural development of island and remote mainland communities.
• Additional funding has been made available through the Resilience Fund and is used to upgrade or replace key systems and equipment on the vessels.
• This is tackled on a priority basis to avoid potential vessel breakdowns and delays to the ferry service and customers.
• This will provide future resilience providing, in the longer term, increased vessel reliability and availability.
• Scottish Ministers have been proactive and have tasked ferry operators and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd with seeking potential second hand tonnage (this includes catamarans) to improve operational resilience on the Clyde and Hebrides and Northern Isles ferry routes.

4. Whether the Scottish Government has considered how access to ferry services can be widened, particularly in the case of younger people, people who have disabilities that may make using the service difficult, and those on lower incomes.

Fares for passengers have been significantly reduced with the roll-out of Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) to CHFS – 2008-2015.

A scheme to reduce ferry fares for school mini-buses has been rolled out across the CHFS network. A 50% discount for mini-buses from island and mainland schools to make it cheaper for pupils to travel for extra-curricular activities.

The Scottish Government currently offers a range of support for ferry travel for young islanders. Our existing Young Persons Concessionary Travel Scheme provides 16-18 year old islanders four free ferry journeys to or from the mainland every year. In addition, under 16’s travel for half fare and under 5s for free on CFL and SNL ferry services.

We will undertake a Ferry Fares Policy Review alongside our wider “fair fares” review. The Fair Fares Review, which is currently in its planning stages, is being undertaken to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares in the future. The review will look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry. It will take cognisance of the cost and availability of services, and will consider options against a background where the costs of car travel are declining and public transport costs are increasing.

Since the launch of the Ferries Accessibility fund in 2015 by the Scottish Government, the fund has provided £429,000 in match funding to 26 different projects. This has not just covered improved accessibility to vessels and Infrastructure, it has supported projects such as the Hate Crime Charter for Disability Equality Scotland and Sensory Packs and staff training for the National Autistic Society. The seventh round has been launched with submissions due to be reviewed early in 2022.

PAMIS (Promoting A More Inclusive Society) have been working alongside CalMac Ferries Limited to assess and improve toilet provision for people with complex disabilities at both terminals and onboard vessels. The Scottish Government has supported the installation of improved accessible facilities with £182,096 of funding. All of the major vessels operating upon the Clyde and Hebrides network have accessible toilets. On our Northern Isles routes as well as Changing Places toilets there are also accessible cabins installed on the three passenger ferries.

I hope this is helpful.

Yours sincerely

Graeme Dey