Public service shouldn’t sink to this ferries fiasco - Alex Cole-Hamilton

I have long been fascinated by the high-tech island nation and as a bastion of liberal democracy in South East Asia, concerned for its precarious situation so close to its larger neighbour.

One of two late and over-budget ferries launched at a shipyard on the River Clyde

From my first impressions, it is clean, its public services run well and despite the lingering spectre of geopolitical conflict in the background, people seem to have a can-do attitude about the future.

I’ll have more to say about my trip across the globe next week but back in Scotland, my party’s talented researchers have uncovered a different kind of island life under threat.

Whether you live on one of Scotland’s islands or rarely see the coast, you’d have to have been living under a rock to miss that Scotland’s ferries have had a chaotic few years.

From ferries at Ferguson Marine with painted on windows to breakdowns on key routes, it has become something of an embarrassment for a nation which used to lead the world in shipbuilding, with this summer looking like the shameful nadir.

Now, using freedom of information requests, Scottish Liberal Democrats have obtained data which lays out the scale of the ferry fiasco blighting coastal Scotland – and the sheer cost of compensating passengers for the chaos and patching aging boats.

According to the figures from operator CalMac, in just three months, between 1 April and 30 June this year, £90,192 was paid out in response to customer's rights claims by passengers.

CalMac have described the situation as "an unprecedented level of vessel unavailability as a result of planned annual overhauls and emerging technical issues".

But technical language doesn’t tell the whole story. On routes like Ardrossan-Brodick and Kennacraig-Islay/Colonsay/Oban, a quarter of sailing were cancelled, while between Mallaig-Lochboisdale, 58.2 per cent of sailings were cancelled.

In total in 2025, 15,150 services were cancelled, while in the first half of 2026, 6636 were cancelled. Meanwhile £65 million was spent on repairs to our ailing ferries.

Everyone knows the SNP's record on ferries is lamentable, but these figures spell out in black and white just how bad the situation really is.

Coastal and island communities are being forced to endure a level of chaos that no public service should ever sink to. Passengers are having to file claim after claim to fund their food and travel while they make other plans for often vital journeys. From missed schooldays and hospital appointments to serious damage to small businesses, this is a disaster that just keeps going.

I’m continually shocked by how little contrition we’ve seen out of the SNP for what's happened to Scotland's ferries over the last two decades

An apology is not going to be enough though. What our government actually needs to do is to implement the Scottish Liberal Democrats' plan for a 30-year rolling programme of ferry construction and port infrastructure upgrades. It’s only common sense that new ferries have to be built before the old ones develop problems and start breaking down regularly.

It’s time for the SNP to channel a little of that Taiwanese spirit and get on with fixing this vital public service.