Editor -Travelling back from Europe to our home in Dunoon on March 11, my wife and I were curious to see how the dreadful fire at the weekend had affected the trains from Glasgow Central Station to Inverclyde; the experience was most illuminating.
Having witnessed excellent such services in Holland, France and Spain, it was fascinating to see the lack of joined-up working at Paisley Gilmour Street that not only had us – with extremely heavy cases – climbing several times from platform one to two and back again, but was also impacting on staff present.
For us it meant that the only train we could get just missed one boat and left us almost an hour to wait until the next. This sorry state was compounded by the fact that on that extremely cold and damp evening, none of the heaters were working in the waiting rooms on our platforms.
Nevertheless, we finally arrived at the ferry terminal in Gourock where it was quickly clear that our railway experiences paled beside those on the next section of our journey.
As mentioned, we had almost an hour to wait for the first available boat – knowing how inconsistent the timetables are, we had checked this a number of times – and although we had debated spending the time profitably by buying food in the high street, we were both
cold and tired by this time and so opted to wait for the ferry in the allotted room.
With the lights of the station fading behind us we walked through the freezing rain – only to find the so- called ‘waiting room’ in total darkness.
Puzzled we knocked on the door and after a number of minutes a member of staff appeared. My wife asked why the room was closed to be told that it was because the boats were off for the night.
We were understandably annoyed and asked why? ‘The weather’ was the reply.
I looked around; little wind; a bit cold; much rain, I asked ‘what weather? Where?’ I received the mono- syllabicretortof‘otherside’.
We had seen no cancellation on the app and my wife asked where the replacement bus was; ‘oh, the last one’s gone for the night….’ ‘Okay, what are we meant to do now?’, he simply shrugged his shoulders in a dismissive gesture of ‘tough, I don’t know’. We were livid.
At this point there were several thoughts in our heads; how are passengers, expecting a service – young people, old people, families, visitors, – meant to get across the water with no alternatives provided or recommended?
What are vulnerable people meant to do with no weather protection and no transport?
Why is a company allowed to abandon its contractual obligations, creating not only a major inconvenience to the
travelling public but also, clearly, a danger to passenger health, safety and life?
What sort of image of Scotland – and this is also crucially important – does this ‘don’t care’ attitude present to visitors and businesses?
How does this irresponsible behaviour encourage people to ‘leave their cars at home’ and opt for more environmentally friendly forms of travel?
Knowing – through painful experience – that this has become the normal practice for CalMac we laboured back to the main road and caught, at considerable expense, a taxi to Western Ferries which, although it has no protection from the elements, at least shuttles boats to and fro that are fit for purpose.
After years of experiencing a ‘service’ that gets worse by the day, there is ample evidence to support the frustration, anger and sense of abandonment that the people of Cowal feel.
The litany of excuses that the company uses for cancellations and shoddy business practice are redolent of an undeveloped country – boats are off ‘for annual maintenance’, ‘because the wind is in the wrong direction’, ‘because sea mist might obscure navigation’, ‘because there’s too much swell’, ‘because the boat needs refuelling’, ‘because the crew need a break’, ‘because there is an engine fault’, because there is a problem with the link span’;
all seem plausible until one realises that 10 years ago they rarely happened.
Back in the 20-teens one could leave Dunoon at 7.15am. and be reasonably sure of getting into central Glasgow by 8.40am. – I know this because I had to doit–nowwecan’tevenbe ‘reasonably sure’ that there’ll be a boat running at all and the chances are that even if there is, it will take much longer.
In due course a Western ferry docked and we boarded, reluctantly, phoning to meet another taxi from the Dunoon side to get us to where we should have landed from the preferred ferry.
Whilst crossing we chatted to another couple who had similarly been caught out by the lackadaisical behaviour of CalMac but who had been told that there was a replacement bus for them on the Dunoon side of the water; perhaps not surprisingly and to their chagrin, this never materialised and they ended up having to book a taxi.
All this may sound trite to those of us familiar with the breathtakingly poor service offered to the people of Cowal, however, there is an important and disturbing side to it all.
The Argyll and Bute Council Business Plan emphasises a need to re- populate the region. This plan requires, fundamentally, good and reliable transport links; we do not have these.
David Atherton Dunoon
