The replacement for the Coruisk MV Loch Frisa is now in service on the Craignure-Oban route. If not already, then the Coruisk will soon be heading for Mallaig to resume services to Armadale.
The Loch Frisa will operate the Craignure-Oban route all-year round, and will be based in Craignure. This should give us the ‘Island Focussed’ service that we have long campaigned for, with earlier departures and later returns through the winter months. This is not quite how we envisaged or hoped the Island Focussed Service would be delivered, but there are some undoubted improvements on offer. But also some uncertainties and draw-backs.
The Loch Frisa will deliver exactly the same timetable as the Coruisk in the summer months (perhaps with one or two additional sailings each week, to be confirmed), but unlike the Coruisk she will maintain that timetable right up to the end of the season without any daylight operating restrictions. Capacity-wise however, she is smaller than the Coruisk; and she is also slower. For a service that already shares the top-spot (with Ullapool-Stornoway) as the most congested in the entire network, this capacity reduction will only make ticket availability even worse in the summer months… more in the printed issue