CalMac forced to draft in Isle of Man ferry on Scotland's busiest route after vessel problems

MV Ben-My-Chree, which is owned by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, will be used by CalMac on its Arran route. The vessel is due to arrive in Scotland later this week.

CalMac will consider the option of chartering the ferry based on the trials. The ship will initially be deployed for berthing trials at Troon on the mainland and Brodick on Arran.

Another difficult winter looms for the ferry operator, which said it was looking at back-up plans to deal with vessels that require maintenance and those out of service.

Firm interim chief executive Duncan Mackison told the BBC: "We are being pro-active in identifying options to add resilience and capacity to the network during what will continue to be a challenging winter.

"This vessel is larger than those currently serving Arran and would add capacity to that service whilst freeing up a vessel to move elsewhere.

"This is just a trial, and a full charter will be subject to agreement from multiple parties. Should this be reached, we will review and publish a plan on wider vessel deployment."

Ben-My-Chree, which is 125m long and wider than the CalMac vessels used on the Arran route, was being used as a back-up ferry for the Isle of Man before answering the SOS for Scotland.

The service agreement struck with CalMac means Ben-My-Chree must still be available for back-up purposes for Isle of Man services at stages of the year.

The Scotsman reported last month how the return of one of CalMac’s oldest and largest ferries, the Caledonian Isles, had been further delayed by another hitch after nine months of repairs costing an estimated £6.5 million.

The 1,000-passenger vessel, which is 31 years old, has undergone steelwork repairs which were identified during its annual refit in January. Those reports were scheduled to finish in June, then August.

Extra work extended this at the repair yard at Birkenhead on Merseyside until early September and the ferry was expected to be carrying passengers again by last week.