Achi news desk-
In a 36-page report submitted to the consultation, Mr Pedersen – who owns a transport consultancy and previously worked as head of community, culture and transport at Highlands and Islands Enterprise – recommended a move to a model that would include ferries simpler, with smaller crews. on shorter, more frequent crossings.
He said it was time to move away from a model where ships “were crewed live on board large ships, operating on longer routes than necessary, running to overly complex labour-intensive terminals”.
The Scottish Government has previously announced its intention to award the contract for the Clyde and Hebrides network directly to the publicly owned operator CalMac.
But Mr Pedersen urged the Scottish Government to “unbundle” the routes on the network and allow other companies to submit proposals.
He also pushed for operators to bring their own boats onto the routes, which he said would “completely eliminate the need for government capital funding for boats, bringing a saving of perhaps £50 million further per year on average”.
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The move would effectively shut down the Scottish Government’s publicly procured ferry company, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), which the report claims should be “winded down”.
“None of this will happen without capable and knowledgeable ministerial direction and leadership,” Mr Pedersen wrote.
“It will take steady political nerve, but the reward will be better connectivity to enable our isolated and remote peninsula communities to thrive, while freeing up large amounts of valuable taxpayers’ money to support Scotland’s struggling public services.
“Failure to seize this opportunity will inevitably lead to even more public money being poured into a dysfunctional system as our isolated communities decline.”
More investment would be needed, he said, to improve road links to ports while islands would benefit from an increase in population if crews can be encouraged to live on the islands they serve.
Duncan Mackison, interim chief executive of CalMac, said: “Everyone at CalMac is committed to providing a quality, reliable ferry service and this is reflected in our reliability and punctuality figures, which continue to exceed 95% in constant and improved in the last year. financial year.
“However, we fully share customers’ concerns about cancellations and disruptions and are working closely with third parties and stakeholders to address these issues, while also investing record amounts in our fleet that ages to maintain resilience.
“This investment in maintenance increased to well over £43 million in 2023 compared to just £20 million in 2017.”
While a spokesperson for CMAL said: “Unfortunately, Mr Pedersen’s report oversimplifies an extremely complex issue.
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“For example, building new ports in remote parts of Scotland and ensuring suitable road access would be a multi-million pound project, and that’s before replacing an entire fleet of ships.
“We must also consider the wider socio-economic impact that an increase in traffic would have in some areas, as well as the devastating impact that the removal of ferry services from some ports would have on local communities.”
Transport Scotland has been contacted for comment.
Mr Pedersen – who has repeatedly appeared before Holyrood committees to discuss ferries – also weighed in on the long-running “fisco” of the two late and over-budget ferries being built at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow.
The ongoing political sore could have been avoided, he said, if CMAL had chosen to commission two 98-car catamarans from an Australian yard – at a cost of £12 million each – or a similar design, which would “be more economical to operate and they have excellent sea keeping, mobility and environmental qualities”.
“CalMac, and particularly CMAL, seem oblivious to the concept of value for money and do not show sufficient understanding of the use of ship design to overcome difficulties rather than play into difficulties and created by their approach to design,” he wrote.
