CalMac ferries repair bill above £100m in last five years

The repair bill for CalMac’s fleet has passed £100 million in the last five years, figures provided to the Liberal Democrats show.

A freedom of information request by the party revealed the cost of repairs was £26.5 million for 2022/23 alone.

The ferries have faced rising maintenance bills as the fleet grows older.

Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said: “These figures expose the toll that a decade of poor planning by SNP ministers has had on our creaking ferry fleet.

“It’s clear that many vessels are past their best but Scottish Government failures mean that there is no alternative to patching them up and hoping for the best.

“There should be a pipeline of new boats ready to launch to take up the slack.

“Sadly we are now on our sixth transport minister since work on the two ferries at Ferguson Marine began.”

Meanwhile, the public body which owns the ferries has revealed the names of two new vessels which will serve Islay and Jura.

CMAL, which is separate from CalMac, announced they will be called the Isle of Islay and Loch Indaal following a public vote.

The vessels will be focused on freight and are being built at Cemre shipyard in Turkey, with delivery expected in 2024 and 2025.

Responding to the Lib Dems’ comments on the fleet repairs, CalMac chief executive Robbie Drummond said: “We spent a record £34 million on fleet maintenance last year, which was an increase of around 70% from £20 million in 2017.

“Annual overhaul is a highly complex task which our teams plan for months and involves an average of 35,000 engineering tasks being carried out across the fleet.

“This increased investment can be attributed, in part, to the age of the vessels, with more than 38% of them exceeding 30 years of age and increasing challenges around obsolescence and obtaining parts.

“Investment in maintenance is planned to grow to well over £43 million in 2023.

“We appreciate that breakdowns cause a great amount of disruption, and when they occur we pull together specialist teams from across the organisation who prioritise getting the vessel back into service.

“We have no spare vessels in the fleet, so the teams’ focus is on protecting essential services and moving customers on to other sailings if possible.”

CalMac said its figures for maintenance are higher than those given to the Lib Dems as they include upgrades to the ferries.