Scottish Ferries

we are getting increasing numbers of campervans and motorhomes who ‘wild’ camp, shit in the bushes and leave their mess behind – this new levy however doesn’t apply to them.

It really is quite strange that there is no additional fare supplement specifically for campervans, motor homes & caravans to fund the ferry network given how stressed it is. Speaking as someone who has been going to the western isles for nearly 30 years in their campervan and who would happily pay. Pre-subsidy 20 odd years ago the fares were quite expensive, silly cheap now.

calmac ferries are cheap as chips for foot passengers anyway

And since RET cars too. Hence why the Cumbrae ferry queue jams Largs every time there’s a sunny day. (that there is a bus service on the island that will take people into Millport seems lost on the folk who would rather spend several hours queuing on either side)

The problem with the tourist tax is that most of the revenue has to be spent on tourist-facing services and infrastructure instead of just going into general revenue. It’s a giant boondoggle for the tourism-industrial complex and consultants, and wouldn’t do anything to eg replace housing stock lost to Airnbnb by building new social housing.

have you tried any of the these journeys on public transport:

No-one said one solution was going to be right for everyone. Sounds like these edge cases would appreciate a quicker journey with less congestion for a reasonable fee. Also sounds like the bus service would be more reliable if there weren’t so many fing low occupancy cars in the way

I see Hebridean Isles is heading to be scrapped today – down to Glasgow and then who knows…

I first went on that boat in 1988(ish) and first ever Hebridean trip with family as a teenager, and was back on it again with my dad last year.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-7.1/centery:57.4/zoom:7

….down to Glasgow to get stripped of usable parts then onwards for recycling. It’s done well!

Nice write-up here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98ejdjpq96o

MV Glen Sannox has a passenger certificate!

Several weeks of crew familiarisation

i realise it’s probably a contractual mess made more complex by the fact calmac don’t own the boat but… could none of that have been done whilst on the acceptance trials?

Probably not as it didn’t have a seaworthiness certificate so imagine there are all sorts of rules around that. Plus as you say Calmac don’t own it.

Now handed over to CMAL, apparently.