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STV News
07-07-2025
- Business
- STV News
CalMac seeks to recover costs for Caledonian Isles repairs
Scotland's publicly-owned ferry operator is seeking to recover the cost of repairs to a key vessel which has been out of action for 18 months. The Caledonian Isles was taken out of service in January of last year for substantial work which was estimated to cost £5m, with its return to the route between Ardrossan, North Ayrshire and Brodick on the Isle of Arran expected last June. But its return has been considerably delayed, with CalMac chief executive Duncan Mackison saying last month it is 'impossible to say' when it will return. A hull deformity was discovered after repairs were done by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead near Liverpool, which has had a knock-on effect which has prompted CalMac to begin proceedings to recover at least some of the money spent. In a statement, a spokesman for the operator said: 'Following an investigation into the cause of the hull deformity, action is under way to recover costs. 'As this is commercially sensitive and subject to legal proceedings, we cannot comment further.' PA Media The ferry has been out of service since last year (Jeff J Mitchell/PA) The long-running saga of the Caledonian Isles is yet another issue which has hit transport to Scotland's west coast islands in recent years, along with the major delays and cost overruns to two ferries being built at the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow. The Glen Sannox entered service in January, while the Glen Rosa is not expected until next year, with projected costs rising from £97m when the contract was signed to more than £400m. The loss of the Caledonian Isles has also meant there have been no sailings from Ardrossan in months. While the MV Isle of Arran has been re-shuffled to take over the route from Monday for the next two weeks, both the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa are too big for the port in the North Ayrshire town and as such have been sailing from Troon, further down the coast. Locals fear the impact of losing the ferry service on the local economy, while islanders on Arran have also expressed concerns. The Scottish Government has said it is looking at buying the port from operator Peel Ports to make necessary upgrades to allow the ferries to dock there, but talks are said to have stalled. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
The National
07-07-2025
- Business
- The National
CalMac looking to recover repair costs for MV Caledonian Isles
The Caledonian Isles was taken out of service in January of last year for substantial work which was estimated to cost £5 million, with its return to the route between Ardrossan in North Ayrshire and Brodick on the Isle of Arran expected last June. But its return has been considerably delayed, with CalMac chief executive Duncan Mackison saying last month it is 'impossible to say' when it will return. A hull deformity was discovered after repairs were done by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead near Liverpool, which has had a knock-on effect which has prompted CalMac to begin proceedings to recover at least some of the money spent. READ MORE: Scotland weather to hit 'up to 28C' amid heatwave across country In a statement, a spokesman for the operator said: 'Following an investigation into the cause of the hull deformity, action is under way to recover costs. 'As this is commercially sensitive and subject to legal proceedings, we cannot comment further.' The long-running saga of the Caledonian Isles is yet another issue which has hit transport to Scotland's west coast islands in recent years, along with the major delays and cost overruns to two ferries being built at the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow. The Glen Sannox entered service in January, while the Glen Rosa is not expected until next year, with projected costs rising from £97m when the contract was signed to more than £400m. The loss of the Caledonian Isles has also meant there have been no sailings from Ardrossan in six months. While the MV Isle of Arran has been re-shuffled to take over the route from Monday for the next two weeks, both the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa are too big for the port in the North Ayrshire town and as such have been sailing from Troon, further down the coast. READ MORE: Devolved relations reset with Labour has 'failed', says SNP official Locals fear the impact of losing the ferry service on the local economy, while islanders on Arran have also expressed concerns about getting to medical appointments on the mainland. The Scottish Government has said it is looking at buying the port from operator Peel Ports to make necessary upgrades to allow the ferries to dock there, but talks are said to have stalled.
Scotsman
07-07-2025
- General
- Scotsman
CalMac seeks millions in compensation over troubled Caledonian Isles ferry after 18 months of repairs
CalMac is seeking compensation over the Caledonian Isles ferry, which remains out of service after 18 months of repairs. Sign up for the latest news and analysis about Scottish transport Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Ferry operator CalMac is seeking millions of pounds in compensation for one of its vessels that still remains out of action after 18 months. The Caledonian Isles, which services the Arran route, has been under repair since January last year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad John Devlin/The Scotsman Scottish Government-owned CalMac has reportedly lodged a compensation claim over the deformation of the ship's hull. The compensation is being sought from Merseyside shipbuilding and repair company Cammell Laird, which carried out the first phase of repair work. The repair bill has now reached £10.8 million - the equivalent of a quarter of last year's maintenance budget for the entire CalMac fleet. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Scotsman revealed late last year following a behind-the-scenes tour with CalMac of the Caledonian Isles that areas of the 'frame' or skeleton of the 31-year-old ship were found to have 'deformed' by some 2cm due to stresses on its hull. John Devlin/The Scotsman The fault has also affected other key parts of the ship - the engine gearbox and the stern tube bearings, where the propellers meet the hull. Scottish Government-owned CalMac at the time of the tour likened it to squeezing a pot of yogurt that distorted the shape of the contents. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cammell Laird has declined to comment on the compensation claim, the BBC reports. In a statement, a CalMac spokesman said: 'Following an investigation into the cause of the hull deformity, action is under way to recover costs. 'As this is commercially sensitive and subject to legal proceedings, we cannot comment further.' Problems with Caledonian Isles were first found in January last year when annual maintenance inspections showed extensive steel corrosion. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Details of the compensation claim have been revealed with SNP ministers having been accused of 'causing chaos' for islanders, with more than 10,000 ferry journeys cancelled due to technical failures since 2023. The 1,000-passenger Caledonian Isles had been originally due to return to carrying passengers last month, but CalMac has been forced to make further contingency plans after a gearbox issue was discovered. The long-running saga of the Caledonian Isles is yet another issue which has hit transport to Scotland's west coast islands in recent years, along with the major delays and cost overruns to two ferries being built at the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow. The Glen Sannox entered service in January, while the Glen Rosa is not expected until next year, with projected costs rising from £97 million when the contract was signed to more than £400 million. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The construction of the CalMac ferry MV Glen Rosa has been continually delayed and cost much more than expected (Picture: John Devlin) The loss of the Caledonian Isles has also meant there have been no sailings from Ardrossan in months. While the MV Isle of Arran has been re-shuffled to take over the route from Monday for the next two weeks, both the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa are too big for the port in the North Ayrshire town and as such have been sailing from Troon, further down the coast. Locals fear the impact of losing the ferry service on the local economy, while islanders on Arran have also expressed concerns.
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
CalMac bid to reclaim costs for fault-prone Arran ferry MV Caledonian Isles
Ferry operator CalMac is trying to recover millions of pounds of repair costs for a ship that has been out of action for 18 months - and is still not repair bill for MV Caledonian Isles, which has been sidelined from the Arran route since January 2024, has already risen to nearly £ is now seeking compensation from Cammell Laird over problems discovered when the ship returned to Scotland last September, after the Merseyside firm carried out the first phase of claim relates to deformation of the ship's hull, which has required months of remedial work. Cammell Laird has declined to comment. The £10.8m repair bill for the vessel is equivalent to a quarter of last year's maintenance budget for the entire CalMac publicly-owned ferry operator confirmed to BBC Scotland News that action was under way to recover some of those repair costs following an investigation into the cause of the hull deformity."As this is commercially sensitive and subject to legal proceedings, we cannot comment further," it said in a statement. Problems with "Caley Isles", as the ship is known, began in January 2024 when annual maintenance inspections in Scotland revealed extensive steel corrosion. The 32-year-old ship was moved to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead for a "highly complex" repair operation which required removal of the ship's engines. That meant the ferry had to spend months in a dry dock, a narrow basin which is drained, leaving the ship out of the water and supported by blocks. The work, said at the time to cost around £5m, was completed last September but when the ship sailed back to Scotland the crew noticed a gearbox problem and metal shards were discovered in a filter. Further investigation revealed that eight frames, the ribs of the ship's structural skeleton, were deformed and that more steel replacement was required. CalMac engaged a naval architect to report on the root cause of the deformation, while more repairs were carried out in Greenock, by a different ship repair firm. The ferry was due to resume sailing from Ardrossan last month, but a new fault affecting its variable pitch propellers, essential for manoeuvring in harbour, was identified during sea trials, and the ship is still out of service. The prolonged absence of MV Caledonian Isles has added to pressures on the west coast ferry network, and had a major impact on Ardrossan where the new Arran ferry MV Glen Sannox is too big to berth Sannox operates instead from Troon, 15 miles down the Ayrshire coast, which involves a longer crossing to Arran and fewer daily sailings. Meanwhile, Ardrossan, normally the main gateway to Arran, has been left without ferry sailings for six months, with campaigners claiming the economy has from the port will finally resume later on Monday with the 41-year-old ferry MV Isle of Arran drafted to provide temporary cover during July while Caledonian Isles remains out of action. Why are CalMac's ships breaking down so often? The particular issues facing MV Caledonian Isles are part of a wider problem as CalMac tries to maintain services with an increasingly ageing and unreliable fleet. CalMac does not own its ships - instead it leases them from another government-owned company CMAL which is responsible for harbours and ferry procurement. But CalMac does have to pay for maintenance, which has proven costly due to delays in the provision of new annual repair bill has nearly trebled over the past 10 years. When MV Glen Sannox entered service in January, it was the first new large ship provided to the ferry operator by CMAL in nearly a decade. Half of CalMac's 10 major vessels have now reached or are beyond their 30-year expected service life. Aside from rust issues, there are difficulties replacing equipment which is often so old that spares have to be specially manufactured. To make up for a shortage of vessels CalMac has chartered a catamaran, MV Alfred, from Pentland Ferries at a cost of £1m per month since May 2023. By the time the charter ends in October, it will have paid out around double the £14.5m it cost Pentland Ferries to build the vessel. The pressures should begin to ease from next winter onwards as the first of five new major vessels currently under construction for CMAL start to arrive. The first of four ships being built in Turkey, MV Isle of Islay, is on track for delivery by the end of September, about a year later than originally second Turkish ship, MV Loch Indaal, should arrive in the spring of 2026, with the other two following on at six monthly long- delayed MV Glen Rosa is expected to be ready by the end of June next year, and is earmarked to join its sister ship MV Glen Sannox on the Arran route.
BBC News
19-06-2025
- BBC News
Return of MV Caledonian Isles on Arran route delayed again over pressure issue
Ferry operator CalMac has said it is "impossible to say" how long a ferry serving Arran will remain out of action due to a pressure Caledonian Isles has been unable to carry passengers since January 2024 due to a series of faults that have cost nearly £11m to 32-year-old ship had been due to resume sailings from Ardrossan to Arran last week but sea trials revealed a problem with the ship's operator said the ship would return to dry dock in the next week to resolve a pressure issue with the vessel's propulsion system. CalMac said it was unable to confirm a return to service date until an inspection takes place, but sailings from Troon would still be available in the meantime with a two-vessel service of MV Glen Sannox and MV Alfred. MV Caledonian Isles was initially taken out of service in January last year after routine annual maintenance revealed serious steel ship underwent months of major repair work in dry dock at Cammell Laird shipyard in Merseyside, which required removal of the ship's the ship returned to Scotland in September, a gearbox and propeller fault were investigation at Dale's Marine in Greenock revealed the rear of the ship was had been due to return to the Arran route by the end of April, but this was repeatedly pushed back and the ship was expected to return to service last week. Ferry service update The state-owned operator's chief executive officer Duncan Mackison said: "Everyone at CalMac is disappointed that MV Caledonian Isles isn't ready to carry passengers yet, and I know that disappointment will be shared by communities across our network and by those who travel to and from Arran regularly."He said the inspection of the vessel would take a few days and until then, it was "impossible" to determine how long repairs might Mackison added: "But there is a range of possible scenarios going from the issue being resolved in a few days to it taking significantly longer. "To give communities and customers certainty, we're removing MV Caledonian Isles from deployment plans for now and will provide a detailed update on any service impact early next week."When it returns to service, MV Caledonian Isles will run from Ardrossan, the only ferry in the vicinity able to do so since the long-awaited MV Glen Sannox and its yet-to-be-delivered sister ship are too big to dock at the passengers heading to Arran have to board the replacement ferries at Scottish government is investigating potentially buying the port at Ardrossan to make the necessary changes to allow both newer vessels to berth there, but talks are reported to have stalled.
