Ferries: Delayed and over-budget Glen Sannox wage bill hits £3.5m despite yet to carry passengers

CalMac, the ferry operating company wholly owned by the Scottish Government, hired 14 staff to work on the MV Glen Sannox in 2022, but the ferry has never carried a passenger.

The Scottish Government has spent £3.5m of taxpayer money on paying the wages of a passenger ferry crew which has yet to complete a commercial voyage.

CalMac, the ferry operating company wholly owned by the Scottish Government, hired 14 staff to work on the MV Glen Sannox in 2022, but the ferry has never carried a passenger, according to the Sunday Mail.

The Glen Sannox, which was launched prematurely in 2017 with painted-on windows, has been subject to repeated delays, and is now scheduled to be delivered exactly six years late.

The Glen Sannox, which was launched prematurely in 2017 with painted-on windows, has been subject to repeated delays, and is now scheduled to be delivered exactly six years late.

Along with the Glen Rosa, the two vessels - which will be CalMac’s second largest - were ordered in 2015 and were both due to have been completed by the Scottish Government-owned Port Glasgow yard in 2018.

The Glen Sannox is now unlikely to be carrying passengers until October following two months of trials by CalMac – well after the end of the busy summer tourist season.

It is being completed at a yard in Greenock because there is not enough space for both vessels to be moored at Ferguson Marine. Both ferries are due to operate the main Arran route between Troon and Brodick, which is CalMac’s busiest.

They are also four times over their £97 million budget.

Scottish Lib Dem economy spokesperson Willie Rennie told the Sunday Mail: “I have my head in my hands. Yet more money wasted on these dreaded ferries.

“We know there were discussions about possible construction delays when CalMac decided to employ the crew members, which makes it particularly troubling that they pushed ahead with recruitment regardless.

“Bills, delays and disruptions are all islanders and taxpayers have ever known from these ferries. As one of his first acts, John Swinney must get a grip of this never-ending ferry fiasco.”

The total wage bill includes three captains and 11 engineers while a further five officers were taken on last year.

Duncan Mackison, interim CEO of CalMac, told the Sunday Mail that normal procedure is for senior crew staff to be hired six months before a new ferry launches.