| The Incidence of Subsidy and its Relationship with Islay and Jura
Subsidy as a social instrument occupies a very ambivalent position in the transport circumstances of Islay. For the past sixty years or so it has been a dominant factor in the provision of shipping services to Islay and Jura and, indeed by its very singular use, has given a monopoly of passenger transport and a very near monopoly of passenger transport and a very near monopoly of freight to these islands to the organsation known as Caledonian MacBrayne.
In the face of this never fail situation, innovative thinking has been submerged in the day to day enjoyment of privilege and security. There have been only two occasions in the last sixty years when the incumbent operator has been jolted into the measure of change. One was just prior to the last war when a competitor emerged for cargo and brought in the first ship to farm or consignee delivery by lorry. This was competition and David MacBrayne had to respond. They promptly equalled the service and it has been maintained ever since. The competition suffered an early death.
The other was in 1967 in the middle of the second "Overland Route" project. Western Ferries, caught by the fever of the new 40 ton road transporters of cargo, established the first roll-on-roll-off service to Islay. We know that after the demise of the first Overland Route project in 1953, this actual development was proposed to MacBrayne's Chairman as a good but second best development to the Overland Route. The history of this second element of competition is well known. While it conveyed very real benefit to Islay, which doubled when David MacBrayne quickly re-entered the scene - the outcome was that, together they provided Islay with four times the frequencies of the mid-sixties and Islay flourished - it was only for a few years. While freight moved rapidly and efiiciently it still remained the long way round for passengers. An upper limit of 80,000 passenger movements was quickly reached but then as quickly fell away as the onset of depression and a cut back in frequencies had their effect. In short, Western Ferries took their profit in capital appreciation (helped by MacBraynes) and pulled out while David MacBrayne soldiered on happily, having fought the competition off on the strength of the public purse. Then frequencies fell like ninepins until 1983 when the Buchanan Report stated that the service to Islay could be discharged in winter by nine weekly return passages on the Iona. Fearing too big a reaction from Islay, Caledonian MacBrayne set the winter services at 11 per week and the summer services at 13.
Through all this surge and ebb of activity, only one thing was certain and that was the subsidy. But, while the ups and downs of frequencies made no difference to the pattern of deliveries of cargo, which has no sense of time, with the collapse of frequencies the passenger traffic fell progressively to an all time low of 63,000 passengers in 1982. Very soon after this, the third Overland Route project was brought into being. The first venture clearly was too far advanced in its thinking for the climate of 1952 and the second was aborted by the intervention of Western Ferries (but not before Islay had shot down, at a public meeting, the last design for a major side loading ferry by MacBrayne and sent them back to the drawing board, which eventually resulted in the MV Iona). The third Overland Route Committee have made an exhaustive study of every aspect of ferry transport conceivable and, supported by statistics from every comparable situation, have prepared an unassailable case for the development of the Lagg/Loch na Cille crossing.
This has been done in the knowledge that a point of absurdity has been reached in the affairs of Calmac's service to Islay and its relationship with the Scottish Office. In effect, with the public purse paying for more than 50% of the Islay service alone it was clear that Calmac were more in the business of subsidy than of their primary duty of transport. Their primary duty, as we see it, is to provide the best and most efficient service possible, at no cost to the public purse. This they have lamentably failed to do.
The crux of Islay transport problems lies in the "Big Boat Syndrome" to which CalMac is addicted and the use of the large dual purpose vessel. It is a fact that, in such a vessel, while tha car and passenger list has no relationship with the cargo, it is the cargo - which can only move from on e mainland port, Kennacraig - which is the main determinant of the size of the vessel and the route which it takes. The time element on the high seas passage then takes over. The limited frequencies demand that the vessel be built to a maximum use factor relating to this particular passage. The extensive deck soace required for this situation, together with the heavy cargo content determines the size of ship and the maximum Department of Trade passenger list largely determines, along with vessel size, the numbers of crew required,
So we find that the 40% or less of deck space required for the cargo calls the tune for the entire transport service to Islay.
The development of the Lagg crossing requires the separation of car and passenger traffic from the heavy CVs. We quickly appreciated that the dual purpose vessel on the high seas crossing is a positive deterrent to passenger traffic and that the only release for passengers was by the Overland Route. This freedom of movement will allow the traffic to reach its natural optimum for Islay and Jura. To us it is elementary that this benefit would follow a reduction of 75% in sea travel time and a quadrupling of the measure of frequencies. There are many comparable services in Scotland to prove the point and we have listed the statistics elsewhere in our submission to support this.
We know that a properly devloped and profitable Lagg route will easily underwrite any losses which may accrue on the commercial ferry, although even there we would expect that a re-capitalised Islay and Jura would be a great stimulus to cargo traffic.
This way, Islay and Jura, so far as transport is concerned will stand on their own feet and the Treasury, after using the first year of subsidy relief to pay for the terminals, will thereafter be relieved permanently of its needless supportive role.
This article is extracted from the Overland Route's 1986 submission.
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