CalMac Summer Timetables- Important Amendments

In particular the changes to the Craignure route will lead to issues with handling day excursion traffic (whether foot or car) to Iona, Staffa and other wildlife cruises from Tobermory.

Intending or booked passengers on such day excursions should check with their providers (West Coast Tours or the boat hire companies).

Note that some of the available capacity will be with held from sale to support Islanders lifeline travel needs.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post these updates Stuart. Really appreciate all you do to keep us informed with the most up to date information!

Stuart this is too kind of you to digest and package all this very important information.

That -- to take but one example -- some of the already-booked Mallaig-Armadale slots will not be able to be honored !! Wow !

Scotland travelers are very lucky to benefit from your expertise and time.

I really appreciate the warning that I need to keep checking the schedule for Arran. I'm heading there in early May.

Thank you for keeping us up to date on all things Scotland. I'll be ferrying in early May also.

Services to Craignure, Isle of Mull,- further amendment from 10 to 27 March - the MV Isle of Arran is now running this service to a single vessel timetable.

my goodness they go crock a lot

On 29 March the annual memorial service for HMS Dasher will take place during the 10:50 sailing from Troon to Brodick.

MV Glen Sannox will stop for a brief period over the site of the wreck to allow a short service to be conducted.

As a result, the arrival into Brodick may be slightly delayed which may have a knock-on effect to the 13:00 sailing departing Brodick.

More about the loss of HMS Dasher- https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/ESCORT/DASHER.htm

(a memorial plaque can also be seen in Brodick Ferry Terminal)

So if I have a booking from Oban to Mull on May 28th will it be honored?

Thanks for the input

So if I have a booking from Oban to Mull on May 28th will it be honored?

The simple answer is that no-one knows. If it was booked when the Isle of Mull (capacity 70 cars, 962 pax) was meant to be on the service there is a potential problem, if booked now when the MV Coruisk (capacity 40 cars, 250 pax) is scheduled to be on it is probably OK. CalMac are working through bookings in date order and will bounce people to the Fishnish or Tobermory routes if needed a lot closer to the time. Hopefully they are now taking bookings on the Coruisk having already re-assigned Isle of Mull bookings, which would imply that you are OK.

But with less capacity if urgent freight, or ambulance, fire or police resources are needed for Mull then if the ships are full in theory you could be bounced with little notice. That has happened, to my personal knowledge to Lismore when extra fire engines had to be sent from Oban to Lismore for a big fire over there. Or it happened on the Stornoway route a few weeks ago when extra police were needed from Dingwall to cope with a fatal road accident on Lewis. No one was bounced off but the ship was very late sailing.

There are working to a matrix of priorities-
Freight is top priority (on and off the island), Islander Bookings (as a company CalMac's PSO obligations require that they service locals over tourists), retain some spare capacity on each sailing for lifeline needs (urgent medical including blue light needs, that kind of thing), on Monday morning Oban bound and Friday afternoon Mull bound for school pupils from south Mull and Iona who board at the state Secondary school in Oban during the week, then in 5th and last place tourists.

It is a bit of a mess.

We are currently booked for 2 passengers and a car from Craignure to Oban on the Loch Frisa at 10 on May 21. There are still spots available on the Coruisk at 11. I really would prefer not to be bumped to one of the other routes. Would we be safer switching to the Coruisk? Thank you so much for all your ferry expertise, Stuart!

If you have an existing booking I personally would stick with what you have. All I would note is that the Loch Frisa is an ex Norwegian sheltered waters ferry, and a bit smaller than the Coruisk.

But the decision is yours.

But for all anyone knows it could be like today where the single vessel went tech so there have been no sailings from Craignure today. Or everything could be cancelled due to weather. The network is extremely fragile until mid June, and every decision is a gamble to an extent.

If there is another breakdown elsewhere in the network they may have no option but to pull a ship off Mull to cover, given that Mull has three routes, The Coruisk is the 'go anywhere' vessel so my educated guess is that she would be redeployed if they were forced to do that.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. We will cross our fingers!

The April 4 announcement for the Ardrossan-Brodick ferry "Impacted bookings – Our system is closed for new bookings and amendments between 27 April and 31 May. From Friday 4 April, we will be in touch with impacted customers in sailing date order. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Ferries will continue to sail from Troon, until the MV Caledonian Isles is operational. I have RT tickets to Brodick May 1 and from Brodick May 3, so I expect to be contacted.

Added: I was contacted April 5 for the May 1 ferry change and April 6 for the May 3 ferry change. Both are within 30 minutes of the original Ardrossan-Brodick-Ardrossan sailings that I purchased in early March.

Dates further amended for restoration of the Mallaig to Lochboisdale route and MV Isle of Mull being taken out of service for repair.

On the Mallaig to Armadale route the MV Loch Fyne has now been taken out of service until AT LEAST 27 April. She has been replaced with the smaller MV Loch Bhrusda. In turn she is short of crew resulting in short notice cancellations.
Some booked traffic on this already reduced service will not be able to be conveyed. Affected bookings will be notified by CalMac.

Also the timetable for Brodick sailings to and from Troon from 1 June onwards has been adjusted to reduce congestion at Brodick. Affected bookings will be notified.
Until that has happened some sailings are closed to new bookings.

Hello
I have reservations from Mallaig to Armadale, for two of us - no car, on the 7:40 am ferry. Are the cancellations primarily impacting reservations with cars or is there a chance I would not be able to get that ferry as two walk ons? Or, do I just have to wait and see if the ferry company contacts me?

Thanks!
Suzanne

Really you have to wait for Calmac to contact you, you will have several days notice if they do.
It would not surprise me if this ends up with a supplementary passenger only charter vessel, depending on how long the situation persists for.

I see from previous posts that you are going over a week tomorrow. We should know the situation by Monday or Tuesday.I

The ferry takes 18 cars and 150 passengers so if that particular sailing is running there should be plenty of foot passenger capacity so early in the morning.

Hello
Great information.
Thank you!
Suzanne

Further problems - the single vessel service on the Mallaig to Armadale route is now extended to 25 June (at least).
This is due to on going delays to the remedial work on MV Isle of Mull meaning that the Oban to Craignure route remains on heavily reduced capacity with two small ferries until at least 25 June. Some booked vehicle traffic to Mull between 15 and 25 June may be unable to be conveyed.
All passengers (including foot passengers) MUST continue to pre book on both routes.

UPDATE ON SAILINGS TO ARRAN - The MV Caledonian Isles is confirmed as being due to return to service on 9 June.
At some point (to be confirmed) the Ardrossan to Brodick service will thus re-open. The MV Alfred (with an enhanced passenger certificate of 428) will remain on service from Troon during the transition.
The Glen Sannox will remain on Troon to Brodick.

Thus during the transition week anyone booked on the Alfred may be transferred to the Caley Isles from Ardrossan at short notice. CalMac will inform any such bookings directly

Going forward service will be from both Ardrossan and Troon.
EDIT-
The restart date for full passenger service is now revised and confirmed as SUNDAY 15 JUNE with limited service starting 2 days earlier.

Sailings from Skye to the Outer Hebrides 30 June to 3 July-

Due to a technical issue with the MV Hebrides all sailings from Uig (Skye) will be operated by the MV Alfred on the above dates. Bookings are closed while the revised timetable is finalised. There will be no catering on these sailings and they will be more prone to weather than normal.
This period is subject to extension depending on progress of the repairs.