Confusion once again surrounds Kicreggan’s ferry service, with sailings to Gourock limited to 12 passengers at a time.
The Island Princess broke down completely on Monday but reappeared yesterday (Tuesday), restricted to only 12 passengers rather than the contractual requirement of 60.
The boat had to abandon its timetable and operate a shuttle service which saw many Coulport workers forced to wait in line at Kilcreggan before they could return home.
This morning (Wednesday) another shuttle service was in operation, meaning passengers risked missing trains at Gourock.
As revealed here, only one service review meeting has been held by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) in the three years since Clydelink took over the contract.
At that meeting last month, prompted by another spate of confusion caused by breakdowns and limits in passenger numbers, Mark Aikman of Clydelink undertook to make communication with passengers more timely and accurate.
Despite that undertaking, there has been no public announcement this week about the restriction to 12 passengers, while many commuters on Tuesday morning had no idea whether the previous day’s ‘technical problems’ had been fixed.
Cllr Robert MacIntyre, Argyll and Bute’s representative on SPT, said last night that he had been unaware of the latest problems and would take the matter up with officials.
Meanwhile, the ferry on Monday switched to its new berth at Gourock; because this is further away from the railway station there have been slight adjustments to the timetable – although that timetable has seldom been of much relevance thus far this week.
How much more of a ride do we have to be taken for before SPT do their job properly? The sooner this orphan service is removed from SPT’s incompetent and bus-centred hands and incorporated in the wider CHFS tendering exercise the better; hidebound as CalMac are they do have a vague idea of how to run a ferry.
Perhaps the logo could be changed from ” a frequent reliable service” to “a random service”.