Crisis talks held over Scotland's ferry shortage to prevent Easter weekend chaos

Crisis talks have been held ahead of the Easter holidays as Scotland's beleaguered ferry fleet faces further disruption.

With tens of thousands expected to visit west coast islands over the busy bank holiday weekend, the transport secretary, Fiona Hyslop, met CalMac on Sunday to discuss resilience and vessel deployment for the next ten days.

The operator has previously recorded more than 112,000 passenger movements over the four-day Easter period alone.

A spate of engine problems has left eight CalMac ferries out of action, with the operator warning of a "critical" shortage of vessels.

Services will be amended for Barra, Harris, and North and South Uist from Tuesday, while MV Isle of Mull will be redeployed for ten days to serve Coll, Tiree and Colonsay. By then, some of the affected vessels are expected to have completed maintenance and return to service.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is expected to travel to Stornoway on Lewis today, where he will make an election pledge to "end the SNP's ferry fiasco" by effectively scrapping CalMac.

He said Scottish Labour would merge CalMac with Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) into a new publicly owned ferry agency.

His comments came as new figures showed a tenfold increase in CalMac cancellations linked to breakdowns over the past decade.

Data released under Freedom of Information shows cancellations for technical reasons rose from 709 in 2015 to 7,371 in 2025.

Figures from last year indicate that, for the first time in at least a decade, most cancellations were caused by technical faults rather than weather or other factors. In 2015, technical issues accounted for just one in 10 cancellations.

"Right across Scotland, the SNP's ferry fiasco is a symbol of their incompetence and waste - but in our islands it has wreaked havoc with people's day-to-day lives," Mr Sarwar said.

He said that islanders had missed "weddings, funerals and medical appointments", with businesses struggling to stay afloat.

"Enough is enough - it is time to put an end to the SNP's ferry fiasco and give island communities the reliable lifeline service they deserve."

An SNP spokesperson said more than £2 billion had been invested in ferry services during the party's time in office and argued that building more vessels was the solution.

"Under the SNP we are operating more sailings and serving more routes than ever before, but the priority is to ensure island communities get the service they deserve," the spokesperson said.

CalMac said technical outages remained a significant risk given the age of the fleet, adding that demand had increased as services expanded.

The state-owned company confirmed that six major and seven smaller vessels are due to join the fleet between 2025 and 2029, which should help reduce cancellations.

Amid the chaos, CalMac leaders told island communities the situation was the "most pressing" it had faced.

With election campaigning under way, opposition parties seized on the disruption.

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Greene described the crisis as "never-ending".

"With Easter and summer just around the corner, island tourism is wholly reliant on ferries which run, but the SNP have thrown the network into permanent chaos," he said.

Ferry bosses warned disruption would continue well into the week and measures are in place to help reduce the chaos over the next seven to ten days.

The latest disruption follows the suspension of MV Lord of the Isles, which serves Coll, Tiree and Colonsay and had also been covering the Oban-Mull route due to issues with MV Isle of Arran. The vessel was withdrawn on Saturday after a main engine fault, with no clear timeline for its return.

CalMac said MV Isle of Mull will instead operate services between Oban, Coll, Tiree and Colonsay from Tuesday, subject to repositioning from Barra on Monday. On Mull, a single-vessel service will run between Oban and Craignure, with MV Loch Riddon operating between Tobermory and Kilchoan.

Services to and from Arran, Barra, Harris, Islay, North Uist and South Uist have also been affected.

Three other large ferries, including the troubled Glen Sannox, remain unavailable, while four more are undergoing annual maintenance. Sailings to Barra and North and South Uist will operate via Uig on Skye, and passengers travelling to or from Harris are advised to use the Ullapool to Stornoway route where possible.

The MV Isle of Islay, which only arrived from its Turkish shipyard last month, missed its planned passenger debut on Friday due to a failure in its power management system.

CalMac chief executive Duncan Mackison said: "The situation remains critical and our focus over the weekend has been on ensuring service provision is in place throughout the next seven to 10 days.

"Services will be amended for Barra, Harris, and North and South Uist from Tuesday and MV Isle of Mull will be redeployed to serve Coll, Tiree and Colonsay. This will be in place from Tuesday 31 March to Thursday 9 April to give communities and customers a clear view of minimum service levels, with the hope that we can review and enhance services before then as some of the eight vessels off-service complete maintenance and repairs and return."