Easter holiday travel plans for South Uist and Barra residents are mired with disruption as both communities continue to struggle with a greatly diminished ferry service.
Patients who pre-booked tickets to attend medical appointments are also affected.
Due to her severely reduced capacity limits of just 45 passengers, the shared relief vessel, MV Isle of Mull, cannot cope with the spike of demand as Western Isles schools break up for Easter tomorrow (Friday).
But CalMac does not intend to provide an alternative vessel to fulfil the needs of either community for desperately sought direct mainland sailings this weekend.
CalMac sold ferry space in advance based on the MV Isle of Lewis’s capacity but numerous Barra ticket holders have to decide either to cancel their plans or endure a lengthy detour to get to the mainland.
Due to CalMac’s chronically depleted fleet and shortage of suitable vessels, MV Isle
of Mull was initially placed on a relief service for South Uist - while its own vessel,
MV Lord of the Isles, is reassigned to cover Tiree, Coll, and Colonsay.
Legal restrictions imposed upon the Mull due to a condemned liferaft evacuation system effectively curtail her passengers limit to 45 travellers .
While just about manageable in the low-travel month of January on the South Uist
service, the situation is now “untenable” as Barra has been added to the mix and
increasing numbers of islanders require travel highlights MSP Alasdair Allan
The issue - for Barra at least - will not be resolved until MV Isle of Lewis returns
from her long delayed drydocking. The vessel’s month long overhaul has nearly doubled.
Repairs to badly corroded steelwork prevented her returning on 4 March while the
latest delay has been caused by a serious issue regarding the stable running of her
twin engines.
MSP Alasdair Allan said CalMac has made a “serious error” in regards to route prioritisation.
He has complained about CalMac’s prioritisation policy to transport secretary Fiona Hyslop pointing out it is “deeply concerning” the Barra community is being asked by CalMac to attempt to prioritise those needing to travel for medical reasons amongst themselves by giving up their existing tickets.
He added: “CalMac are supposed to have measures in place to help prioritise islanders needing to make urgent trips, including medical appointments, but this appears to be a policy that is not functioning as it should be given the current vessel deployment and capacity restrictions.
“There is a real issue in how the vessel deployment decisions which have been made across recent weeks and months are continuing to affect Barra and Lochboisdale in particular.
“We are now in a situation where, for example, passengers taking a day trip to Mull, or going from Mull across for shopping in Oban, are taking priority over people in Barra being able to attend hospital appointments.
“I do not say this to pit one community against another by any means – but when one island has multiple vessel links to the mainland operating at full capacity while another island is being asked to cope with one vessel at a tiny fraction of its usual passenger capacity, we have a clear problem.”
Alternative detours put to passengers “are simply impossible” and much more “complicated and time consuming” for many people, he added, such as flying between Barra/Benbecula and Glasgow or traveling to Lochmaddy in North Uist and then making the journey to Oban via Skye.
A CalMac spokeswoman said: “MV Isle of Lewis was due to return to the Oban-Castlebay
route from annual overhaul on 23 March, but an issue with the main engine meant that
this had to be delayed. We are very sorry to the local community for this further
disruption this will cause, particularly at the start of the school Easter holidays.
“Despite our best efforts, we are unable to source another vessel besides from MV Isle of Mull currently. Therefore, MV Isle of Mull will continue to operate a combined Castlebay/Lochboisdale service until 30 March with additional connecting sailings being operated on the Sound of Barra service.
“We will continue to monitor MV Isle of Lewis’s repairs and are confident that the vessel will return to service on 31 March.”
A spokesperson for Transport Scotland, the department which oversees the Scottish Government’s ferry division said: “Under the CHFS contract we expect CalMac to deliver essential services and provide connectivity to our island communities.
“Technical issues and the annual overhaul schedule have led to the need for further
re-deployment across the network to ensure this is maintained.
“We recognise the impact that delays and disruption have regrettably had on our island communities and we are committed to investing in our ferry services. In the coming year, we will invest over £530 million maintaining and enhancing our networks and strengthening resilience of services on the west coast and northern isles.”
Barra and South Uist face ferry travel misery for Easter holiday getaway
27 March 2025
