Dunoon Gourock Ferry Action Group Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 30 April 2024
Back to Bute and Cowal Area Community Planning Group — 30 April 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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A town with no name In 2011 Dunoon disappeared from CalMac advertising literature. After 13 years of ‘continuous improvement’ and a specific action to re- establishing the town in advertising Transport Scotland and CalMac have managed to represent the town by an unnamed red dot in the current route map! Tourists use these maps to plan their visits.
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Success 1954 Dunoon Gourock Scotland’s first seagoing ferry service Ideal location, bypassing the Rest-and-be-thankful to connect the Central Belt to a large swathe of Argyll 1973 Arrival of Western Ferries Further strengthens the whole transport network increasing • Resilience • Capacity • Choice First Clouds 1981 A Public Enquiry roundly rejects a proposal that Western should be a given a vehicle carrying monopoly with the town centre crossing becoming passenger only. It found that such a scheme would be: • Deeply damaging to the local economy • Small passenger only ferries would be unreliable 1998 A Deloitte Touche report reiterates that large vessels are required to operate reliably on the town centre crossing
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Folly 2011 The town centre vehicle service that the town had evolved around for almost 60 years ends. Cowal/Argyll is set back 40 years to having only a single vehicle ferry service bypassing the ‘Rest’. A passenger only service using small ferries is introduced despite the previous reports and severe problems on the ‘Rest’ As predicted the passenger service is horrendously unreliable it can be off completely for four consecutive days. There is an immediate negative effect on the local economy, passenger number to Cowal Games drop dramatically. The ‘Rest’ blocks repeatedly. The service costs more to run than the previous one because vehicle carrying generated profit. Reintroduction of a town centre vehicle ferry service becomes official Government policy in the Scottish Ferries Plan Plans for a Transport Regulator with statutory powers are quietly dropped. 2013 The MVA Report paves the way for reintroduction of a vehicle service as vehicle carrying is shown to be profitable in all scenarios. It also states vessels must be at least 40m long to operate reliably. 2017 The ferries should have been replaced as the original contract was for 6 years. 2018 Official Policy is reversed, the crossing is to remain passenger only, using small vessels, no credible explanation for the decision has ever been given. 2023 The cost of replacement passenger only ferries has effectively doubled as the Kilcreggan Gourock crossing is now going to have to use vessels with a different design to those for Dunoon Gourock
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Islands Connectivity ??? Major works on the A82 & A83 will impact access to the whole of Argyll. However as we have already seen Climate Change will disrupt the road network in multiple places.
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Unsustainable Tickets on the Dunoon Gourock town passenger service cost 46% more than the significantly longer Wemyss Bay to Rothesay crossing Gourock is going to have a brand new vehicle ferry port with ongoing costs but with no scheduled vehicle ferry service running to it. Removal of the town centre vehicle service handed Western Ferries a monopoly at the same time as reducing resilience and capacity in the transport network. Major work are planned on both the A82 & A83 leaving all of Argyll vulnerable to transport network disruption even without Climate Change. Queues of 1.5 hours can develop for the 20min ferry crossing because on its own Western lacks the capacity to deal with road network disruption or major events. The loss of resilience means that drivers have experienced difficulty getting to Western when town centre ports were still accessible. Western has a 33% profit margin. 25% of all the private vehicles carried by ferries in Scotland are carried on Western Ferries without RET. A family of 4, a car with a family of 2 adults and 2 children costs £33.20 for a single on the 2 mile, 20 minute crossing. Western’s Commercial Vehicle fares are unpublished but it is believed that they are 6 to 7 times the rate on the Wemyss Bay to Rothesay crossing. This is environmentally damaging as the vast bulk of HGVs travel by road to avoid the high ferry fares. In the long term the above is unsustainable. In the absence of an alternative vehicle ferry service: • Western’s basic commercial fares must be published. • RET must be introduced on both Western and the town centre crossing. • Passenger ferries of 40m plus must be provided.