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Tag: CalMac | Ferry Shipping News

Dec 13
2

New Seaport Passenger Boarding Bridge in Plymouth

By | 2024 Newsletter week 50 | No Comments

Associated British Ports (ABP) has taken another significant step in its £23m Millbay Docks transformation, within the Port of Plymouth.

The first section of a new Seaport Passenger Boarding Bridge (SPBB) on the West Wharf has been installed, with the remaining sections due to be installed in early 2025.

The SPBB has been supplied by ADELTE.

When operational, this new state-of-the-art bridge will help to streamline the embarkation and disembarkation process for foot passengers of Brittany Ferries and cruise vessels.

Source: ABP

Dec 13
2

CalMac Publishes Summer Timetables

By | 2024 Newsletter week 50 | No Comments

The first phase of timetables for the summer 2025 season are available for CalMac customers to view online since Friday 6 December.

Transport Scotland have confirmed that from summer 2025, a two-vessel service will operate on the main Arran route for 10 months of the year, except during scheduled overhauls where CalMac will temporarily operate a single-vessel service.

CALEDONIAN ISLES will operate to and from Ardrossan, and newbuilding GLEN SANNOX will operate to and from Troon, significantly increasing the capacity to Arran.

Bookings for phase one of the summer 2025 timetable will be available on the CalMac website on 19 December.

Source: Corporate CalMac

Aug 09
2

Ferry veteran HEBRIDEAN ISLES to leave the CalMac fleet end of this year

By | 2024 Newsletter week 32 | No Comments

HEBRIDEAN ISLES to be retired as CalMac and CMAL modernise major vessel fleet: 

  • Retirement Date: MV Hebridean Isles will be retired in November 2024. 
  • Service Duration: In operation since December 1985. 
  • Recent Service: Primarily served the Islay route. 
  • Replacement Vessels: ISLE OF ISLAY and LOCH INDAAL. 
  • Reason for Retirement: Age and required extensive overhaul. 
  • Certification Expiry: Certification expires on 21 November 2024. 

Source: CalMac.co.uk 

 

May 12
0

ALFRED chartered as CalMac relief vessel for 9 months

By | 2023 Newsletter week 19 | No Comments
  • Following successful completion of berthing trials, ALFRED will commence service on Friday 12 May, Caledonian MacBrayne announced.
  • Berthing trials have shown that the ports suitable for ALFRED are Lochmaddy, Ullapool, Port Askaig, Brodick, Ardrossan (Irish berth only), Troon and Campbeltown.
  • Unfortunately, due to a technical issue with the vessel’s starboard thruster, she is currently unable to be deployed to Port Askaig. Pentland Ferries continue to work on mitigations to resolve this.
  • As Arran should have a two-vessel service on its main route at this time, ALFRED will initially be deployed between Ardrossan and Brodick.
Mar 17
0

FMEL announces further delay to Calmac vessels

By | 2023 Newsletter week 11 | No Comments

Ferguson Marine has announced a further delay to the two vessels under construction for CMAL/Calmac.

The first vessel GLEN SANNOX (Hull 801) will now be delivered between Autumn 2023 and the end of 2023.  The second vessel (Hull 802) will be delivered between autumn 2024 and the end of 2024.

The vessels, now over 5 years late, were most recently due in May 2023 and March 2024.

The further delays are attributed to a variety of issues connected to the difficult construction history of the ships.

Photo: Ferguson Marine

Jan 06
0

CalMac’s achievements outlined in latest annual report

By | 2023 Newsletter week 1 | No Comments

The David MacBrayne Limited Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ending March 2022 has revealed about CalMac:

  • Service levels remained high, with a contractual reliability of 98.8%, despite challenges facing the fleet including covid infections, travel restrictions, extreme weather, and vessel breakdowns.
  • Record levels of investment being spent on maintaining the fleet – an increase of 64% over five years from £21.0m in 2018 to £34.3m in 2022.
  • Customer satisfaction with the service remained high at 85%.
  • Turnover GBP 227 million (199 million)
  • Gross Profit GBP 28 million (29 million)
  • Operating Loss/Profit -1.2 million (4.8 million)
  • Loss/Profit before taxation -2.3 million (3.3 million)
  • Loss/profit for the financial year -3.7 million (2.5 million)

“We continue to work with partners including CMAL and Transport Scotland to support the successful delivery of additional vessels and are looking forward to welcoming 16 new vessels to the fleet over the next five years. This will bring significant service improvements to our fleet, improving reliability across the network that will benefit our customers, communities, and visitors.”

CEO Robbie Drummond

The annual report can be viewed here
Jul 01
2

Pentland Ferries Have Decided not to Time Charter their Vessel PENTALINA to Calmac

By | 2021 Newsletter week 26 | No Comments

CalMac has been searching for solutions to enhance capacity and resilience within its network. One possible vessel was PENTALINA from Pentland Ferries.

Robbie Drummond CEO CalMac: “Berthing trials had shown she could successfully operate services to Arran and Mull and we were looking forward to her deployment. Unfortunately, Pentland Ferries have decided not to enter into a charter agreement for the use of PENTALINA on our network. We are surprised and disappointed by this unexpected news.”

CalMac had first inquired about chartering PENTALINA end of March. Later an engine failure of CalMac’s biggest vessel, LOCH SEAFORTH, caused weeks of chaos across the ferry network.

Managing director of Pentland Ferries, Andrew Banks: “I would like to stress that the talks with CalMac Ferries were positive and constructive. However, our priority has to be to the continued viability of Pentland Ferries, and to our employees and passengers. We cannot commit to a scenario whereby external factors have the potential to cause severe risk and reputational damage to the business that we have worked so hard to build, and unfortunately we have therefore let CalMac know of our decision.” [Source: Hebrides News]

Aug 13
0

CalMac Acts to Support Passengers at Largs Cumbrae

By | 2020 Newsletter week 33 | No Comments

CalMac is to bring in extra staff to help support passengers who end up in long queues on the Largs Cumbrae route.

Current restrictions on board due to the ongoing Covid crisis means average capacity across CalMac’s fleet is running at around 35% compared to normal.

The extra staff will be on hand to assist and advise passengers on the route which, due to a combination of good weather and capacity restrictions required by social distancing, has seen lengthy waiting times recently.

Queues of up to three hours have impacted day trippers, tourists and islanders trying to get to and from the popular island of Great Cumbrae.