MV Arrow will give CalMac much-needed resilience between Stornoway and Ullapool during harbour work

Robbie Drummond: ‘Extremely welcome news’.

An additional ferry has been chartered to assist island communities during the planned works to Uig Harbour.

The MV Arrow will join the CalMac fleet as part of the revised programme, which was supported with additional funding from the Scottish Government and has cut the outage down from 24 weeks to 14 weeks.

CalMac says MV Arrow “will provide much-needed resilience between Stornoway and Ullapool during Highland Council’s closure of Uig Harbour – supporting the supply chain during what will be a challenging period for our customers and communities there”.

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Minister for Transport Jenny Gilruth said: “I’m pleased we have been able provide funding to charter the MV Arrow to assist during these vital works to upgrade Uig Harbour.

“The Scottish Government has already shown its commitment to supporting affected communities by funding the revised programme of works, and the addition of the MV Arrow is another measure to help reduce disruption to ferry travellers, freight customers and the delivery of supplies.

“We appreciate that any level of disruption is not welcome, but this project is vital to improving ferry services and the harbour experience in Uig in the longer term.”

CalMac are currently working on timetables for the MV Arrow and will confirm the details in due course.

Robbie Drummond, CalMac CEO, said: “We have been working closely with Transport Scotland to investigate the feasibility of leasing extra vessels and the addition of the MV Arrow is extremely welcome news.

“The Uig closure will be a challenging period for our customers and the chartering of MV Arrow will help provide much-needed resilience during the closure.”

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