A SHUTTLE bus has had to be drafted in to replace a ferry after issues with a bridge ramp led to services between Inverclyde and Argyll and Bute being cancelled till Friday.
The issues first surfaced on Friday and led to an immediate suspension of the Gourock to Dunoon route, one of the busiest in Scotland.
It has meant that a replacement bus service is now operating between Gourock ferry terminal and the passenger waiting room at Dunoon pier with the help of a ferry from Western Ferries.
Argyll and Bute Council have arranged for structural engineers and technical officers to conduct surveys, investigations and repairs of the linkspan. It is hoped that the service will be operational gain on July 7.
The Gourock to Dunoon town centre ferry service operated by CalMac is passenger-only but carried vehicles up until 2011.
At the end of 2018, Transport Scotland made the decision to incorporate was was an Argyll Ferries service into the existing Caledonian MacBrayne Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract.
Meanwhile, a number of sailings were cancelled on the Wemyss Bay to Isle of Bute route in the early hours of Monday morning due to a 'technical issue' with MV Argyle's rescue boat.
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CalMac said that eight sailings going to and from Rothesay would no longer run.
The ferry operator later said that repairs to the rescue boat were complete and that MV Argyle would return to service at 3pm on Monday.
It comes as services for longsuffering islanders on South Uist returned on Friday - after being out of action for most of June.
The 38-year-old MV Hebridean Isles, which has been hit with issues since Boxing Day, was removed from the CalMac firing line on February 16 with freight services providing vital supplies to Arran from Troon suspended.
It was due to return to service on Islay at the start of June - but remains out of action.
It has meant that MV Alfred, the chartered vessel from Pentland Ferries which is costing the taxpayer £1m a month will remain on the route to the Isle of Arran until at least July 27 alongside Mr Caledonian Isles.
A ferry user group official said: "The issues with the linkspan are beyond CalMac's control but that is all about proper maintenance and remains a concern. The linkspan does not encounter heavy weight as it is a passenger service.
"The continual issues with MV Hebridean Isles remains a big problem."
South Uist islanders were said to have been driven "to despair" by the disruption when ferry firm CalMac cut sailings from Lochboisdale to Mallaig on the mainland at the beginning of June.
MV Lord of the Isles, the vessel which serves the route, had been redeployed to Islay due to repair issues elsewhere in the fleet.
The withdrawal of Lord of the Isles was met with anger and protests while there were heightened concerns that South Uist was once again seeing services withdrawn because of difficulties with the ageing fleet.
An estimated 500 residents, 200 cars, 40 vans and 20 lorries converged on Lochboisdale - the port which links South Uist to the mainland - at the start of June to protest about the decision.
During First Minister's Questions earlier this month, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said the government's "failure to build a working ferry network" was causing chaos by "ruining lives, damaging businesses, costing jobs and driving islanders to despair".
Mr Ross called on the Scottish government to compensate the islanders for the disruption.
First Minister Humza Yousaf said he would keep an "open mind" over compensation and accepted it was a "fair question" to raise, but explained that it had not yet been brought forward because performance deductions taken from CalMac are invested back into the network.
CalMac confirmed that it was having a rethink on how it organises ferries in the wake of the protests.
The Scottish Government ordered the review and asked to ensure that its scoring matrix is taking into account the actual economic impact to islands.
It is understood that CalMac decided to cancel South Uist services because it would impact the least number of customers and that customers could use alternative routes to get there.
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