OP: @RabBrucesSpider1@mastodon.scot

The Herald and BBC Scotland continue to deceive with selective reporting of the availability of particular vessels with sensationalist headlines hiding the fact that ferry services are largely unaffected by these as CalMac’s large fleet provides reliable cover.

That they are deliberately making up a picture of unreliability due to a few maintenance and new build delays and implying that these result in a loss of service is simply countered by data, in the public domain, which they choose to ignore. CalMac is obliged to publish ‘contractual reliability‘ data (sailings completed as a percentage of those not cancelled for safety reasons due to high winds) and ‘actual reliability‘ data (sailings completed as a percentage including those cancelled for safety reasons due to high winds). The figures were 98.01% and 92.6% respectively – a hugely reliable service.

They also publish ‘contractual punctuality‘ data (sailings completed on time as a percentage of those not cancelled for safety reasons due to high winds) and ‘actual punctuality‘ data (sailings completed on time as a percentage including those cancelled for safety reasons due to high winds). The figures were 99.41% and 96.2% respectively – a hugely punctual service.

Not only does CalMac achieve such figures, it does so in the stormiest seas of any comparable large archipelago service in the developed world, such as those in Washington State USA (Seattle) and in British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver).