MV Isle of Arran and Glen Sannox to serve as resilience vessels in CalMac summer timetable

Two major ferries will serve as resilience vessels throughout the summer, operator CalMac has confirmed.

The MV Isle of Arran is now spare after the MV Isle of Islay entered service for the island she’s named after, meaning it can operate as the resilience vessel for routes on the Clyde and in Argyll.

MV Alfred is operating on the Troon-Brodick to Arran route, allowing MV Glen Sannox to serve as the resilience vessel for all major vessel routes on the Western Isles.

She can operate to Barra, on Ullapool-Stornoway, and on the Little Minch meaning she can quickly relieve any route if there is an unplanned disruption to another vessel.

The ferry has already covered Oban-Castlebay and Ullapool-Stornoway during previous disruption in spring.

Earlier this year, a third of CalMac’s fleet was out of service, and “virtually every Scottish island” had been cut off either due to technical issues or planned maintenance.

The MV Isle of Arran can operate as spare STV News

CalMac’s CEO Duncan Mackison said: “Part of the long-term plan for fleet renewal involves retaining a resilience vessel, but we’re pleased to be able to offer that this summer with two major vessels ready to respond to unplanned technical issues quickly.

“We appreciate it was a challenging spring for CalMac and the communities we serve, but we’ve now enjoyed a month of relatively stable service across all routes, and we can plan with a level of confidence for the rest of summer thanks to having back-up vessels in place.”

The MV Isle of Arran will cover the MV Isle of Mull for seven days on the Oban-Craignure service from Tuesday 23 June to allow the latter to get repairs to her bow visor.

Mr Mackison added: “We’re able to deploy MV Isle of Arran to cover MV Isle of Mull with no impact on the service timetable, no disruption for booked customers, and no disruption on other routes by having to juggle the fleet to provide appropriate cover.

“This is a glimpse of what we see the future being like with a permanent resilience vessel in the fleet in the coming years.”

The ferry operator will also use the resilience vessels to provide extra support to island events and festivals.

There will be extra capacity for the Tiree Music Festival, and options are being reviewed for additional sailings for the Eilean Dorcha Festival on Lewis.

Mr Mackison said: “This level of resilience allows us to trial different vessels at different ports, and this will directly inform how we manage proactive planning for annual overhauls which should ultimately provide more certainty, and less disruption, to island communities.”

The summer timetable will run until Sunday, October 18.