Scotland's west coast operator, CalMac, has revealed their summer timetable - confirming a single ferry will service the Ardrossan-Brodick route at the busiest time of the year, using the company's oldest large vessel on the Firth of Clyde route.
As ArdrossanHerald reports, the 40-year-old MV Isle of Arran, custom built to serve its island namesake, is from where the veteran vessel has been providing cover on the 55 minute route since January. The 466 passenger/68-car and 8 lorry capacity ferry will continue in service, throughout the summer timetable, which runs from March 29 to October 20.
In addition, chartered catamaran MV Alfred from Orkney based operator, Pentland Ferries, will also operate on the Troon-Brodick link upon its return from annual overhaul.
To assist passengers, a shuttle bus along with related facilities will be available to those travelling between Ardrossan and Troon, located in South Ayrshire.
Outside of the Arran route's winter schedule, the summer season is boosted with a second ferry as the main vessel, MV Caledonian Isles is joined by support vessel, MV Isle of Arran, which is also used to run the seasonal Ardrossan-Campbeltown (Mull of Kintyre) service. For a second year, however, its summer sailings are cancelled "due to vessel availability" on the popular tourist route that opened in 2013.
The redeployment plan has forced CalMac to make these changes after it was discovered that additional steel work was required, as Afloat reported, would be needed to repair the MV Caledonian Isles which has not been on the Arran route since January.
The newspaper has much more on the affected services on the Clyde, as the company does have a backup plan given the restricted use of a single Arran serving ferry where constraints at peak times would require additional capacity.
A boost in capacity is subject to berthing trails elsewhere on the CalMac network, though if successful, it could possibly see the redeployment of the MV Hebrides on the Arran route.