SCOTTISH Government-owned CalMac is forking out over £13,000 a week to customers over service failures as the nation's ferry fiasco deepens.
New data has revealed that customer rights claims paid out by Scottish Government-owned Calmac have soared to over £200,000 in the first four months of this financial year.
The Scottish Government has been accused of creating havoc for islands as CalMac has had to pay out more than £850,000 in claims over service failures since 2018, when when two lifeline ferries were due to have been launched to serve island communities.
CalMac is heading for a record year in payouts for customers as it having notched up £215,000 in the four months to July 31, just £46,000 short of what forked out for the whole of 2021/22.
The claims consist of money paid out to customers for meals and accommodation, transport and compensation as a result of cancellations. The new information comes as a BBC documentary aired last night further examined whether the Scottish Government's awarding of the controversial £97m ferries contract to the Jim McColl-controlled Ferguson Marine shipyard may have been rigged.
Today the failure of Scotland' ferry services will come under new scrutiny as as further figures show that CalMac cancellations have hit 7,000 in six months.
The SNP Government has been accused of "letting island communities suffer" as new figures show that a total of 7,431 sailings were cancelled by from January to July this year - 275 more than for the whole of 2018.
State-owned CalMac insisted the vast majority of cancellations had been caused by bad weather.
It comes as the Scottish Conservatives have secured a debate today on the ferries crisis to "stand up for island communities, and force the SNP to finally set out a concrete strategy to get a grip of this crisis".
Officially, the two vessels at the centre of Scotland's ferry-building scandal that remain at the now nationalised Ferguson Inverclyde yard will be delayed until at least next year – over five years later than planned while costs have risen by at least two-and-a-half times from £97m to £250m.
Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesman Willie Rennie MSP has accused the Scottish Government of "creating havoc for islanders" with the service failings.
He is concerned that that the value of claims has shot up from £159,000 in 2018/19, to £177,000 in 2019/20 and after a £51,000 payout during the Covid lockdown affected year of 2020/21, it shot up to £261,000 in 2021/22. He said: "The bill for cancellations and compensation is soaring because the Scottish ferry network is in such a state.
"The last year has seen new levels of havoc. Aging boats are breaking down and it is having a huge impact on islanders, tourists and travellers. “Delays in the construction of two new ferries by Ferguson Marine mean that island communities are still being put on hold by the Scottish Government.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats would tackle delays, breakdowns and cancellations by giving the ferry network the funding it has been starved of for years and allowing communities to plan ahead for replacing creaking ferries. "We would also introduce a wider economic strategy that ensures government projects, such as Ferguson Marine, represent value for money.”
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The vast majority of CalMac ferries run on time and to schedule but breakdowns and delays are not acceptable. That’s why we’ve invested to provide additional capacity on the Clyde and Hebrides routes. We are also continuing to work on procuring more vessels, while the four new ferries we have ordered are being built.
“The Scottish Government has provided over £2 billion of support to our ferry networks since 2007 - there are more vessels and more routes running than ever before. Quite evidently the start of 2022 coincided with some of the worstweather impacts on record and COVID-related absences compounded service delivery. In response, Ministers have approved additional finance to support weather monitoring equipment, as announced in the chamber earlier this month."
Calmac's ageing ferry fleet is being hit by an average of 17 faults leading to service disruption every month as the number of vessel issues has doubled in four years.
Between August 2017 and July 2018 there were 103 faults and that rose to 113 in over the same period in 2018 and 2019 and to 148 in the post-Covid period between August 2020 to July 2021.
Official figures from CalMac show that between August last year and July this year the number of technical issues that led to ferry delays rose to 212.
A CalMac spokesman said: “Our customers have been affected by higher than usual levels of disruption in recent years, including significant upheaval due to the covid pandemic. This has led to an increase in the number of claims.
“Our customers are at the very heart of what we do and we aim to provide the best service we possibly can. When sailings are disrupted or cancelled, we make sure that passengers are fully aware of their rights to claim back costs they incur.”
CalMac has also amassed twice as much in performance fines over its running of west coast ferry services in the last year than in its first nine years in charge.
The ferry operator has amassed nearly £10m in fines since 2007 and nearly £8m in penalties has come since it kept the contract just over five years ago.
Some £4.454m in penalties has been incurred in the 20 months to June this year.
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