As Scotland is surrounded on three sides by water and has about 790 islands, of which 130 are inhabited, ferries are a major means of transport. The islands can be divided into two main groups - the Inner and Outer Hebrides (the latter also known as the Western Isles) off the west coast and Orkney and Shetland off the north coast. Caledonian MacBrayne operates the majority of ferry services on the Firth of Clyde and to the Hebrides, sailing to 23 islands. Most ferries carry vehicles, although some (e.g. to the Small Isles) only convey passengers. The summer timetable…

25 May 2011 Last updated at 13:19 ET Locals had hoped there would be a way to maintain a car service The car ferry service between Gourock and Dunoon town centres is to come to an end. CalMac currently operates a car ferry crossing on the route in competition with private company Western Ferries . The new tender, for a passenger only service, has been awarded to CalMac's Argyll Ferries and starts on 30 June. Both Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde councils had hoped it would be possible to find another way of keeping a car service going. Argyll Ferries are part of the Ca…

Birkenhead based shipyard and engineering firm Cammell Laird has hosted a formal naming ceremony for the first complete ships constructed by the company in 20 years for Scottish ferry operator Western Ferries. The vessels are the first complete ships constructed at Cammell Laird since the submarine HMS Unicorn was launched in 1992 and commissioned by the Royal Navy in 1993. The ceremony marked the completion of a multi-million pound contract which has seen Cammell Laird build two new car ferries for Western Ferries MV Sound of Seil (Cammell Laird keel number 1387) an…

If that had worked, they may have succeeded in pulling the wool over the eyes of the electorate once more with false promises of hope. However, all three aspects of the attempted con unraveled. First, there were no "suitable" vehicle carrying ferries available on the second hand market as I was able to confirm with a series of Freedom of Information questions. Second, rather than being actively engaged in earnest dialogue and debate with the Commission, another set of FoI questions submitted by me showed that the total contact and communication between the Government…

People who live in areas served by the Washington State Ferry system may soon have to pay higher local taxes to maintain routes and runs. Saying the state’s ferry system has lost more than $1.2 billion in tax revenue in the last decade, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday proposed creating a regional authority to operate the nation’s largest ferry system. This ferry district would include all nine Western Washington counties now served by the current system of 10 routes and 20 terminals. A district board would be elected from the region and at-large members would be appo…

Ambitious businesses in Dunoon, existing and emerging, can plan their own future development with the certainty of this service as a key resource. Now Dunoon has to show what it’s made of. It will see a service capable of efficiently carrying the traffic volumes the town can gear up to generate. It can look forward to this bullish development at Western and Argyll Ferries has made public its determination to provide ‘a world class’ passenger ferry service for the town, nailing what external agencies need to provide to support the two- ferry fast town-centre to town-c…

Find out all you need to know about getting to France by ferry with our fully updated ferry guide. Research the best routes for your ferry crossing, discover more about your chosen ferry port or read more about all the major ferry providers including P&O Ferries, Brittany Ferries , DFDS and Eurotunnel. Then find the latest cheap ferry fares using the Fare Search box on the right. Getting to France by car is by far the most popular way to travel, so there are plenty of ferry routes and ferry companies to choose from. Go for the shortest channel from Dover to Calais fo…

Gordon Ross, Managing Director of Western Ferries, has just announced that Western Ferries will, as in previous years, be providing an enhanced timetable to satisfy the increased demand from locals and visitors over the August Bank Holiday and the Cowal Games weekend. These additional sailings will operate between Monday 26th August and Monday 2nd September. Western Ferries will be providing a four boat service with departures every 15 minutes from Hunter’s Quay, Dunoon and McInroys Point, Gourock during the following times: Monday 26th August from 11:00 to 17:00 Thu…