Lochboisdale ferry to be cancelled for five weeks

CalMac has warned one of its services will be cancelled for more than a month to help it maintain other routes in its west coast ferry network.

The service between Mallaig/Oban and Lochboisdale, in South Uist, is to be unavailable from 5 April to 13 May.

CalMac said the reason was the need to redeploy boats elsewhere on the network while it managed delays in routine overhauls of its fleet.

The maintenance programme has previously been hit by problems.

CalMac said technical issues affecting some of its vessels were also hampering the running of some services.

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During the cancellation of the Lochboisdale service, additional daily services are to be provided on the Sound of Barra route to help islanders in Uist access other ferries linking the Western Isles to the mainland.

Chief executive Robbie Drummond said: "Our service continues to be affected by delays to the annual overhaul schedule and its subsequent impact on vessel deployment.

"With no spare vessels, it is a challenging period for our customers and we apologise for the disruption this is causing, particularly at the start of the tourist season."

The latest warning of disruption follows the cancellation of Wednesday's services between Skye, Uig and Harris after an electrical fault on the ferry MV Hebrides.

The vessel had just set sail from Uig on Skye when the alarm was raised at about 14:45 BST on Tuesday.

Ferry services had just returned to normal at Uig for the first time since January, after months of upgrade work at the harbour.

No-one was hurt.

A CalMac spokeswoman said: "Due to an ongoing technical issue as a result of an overheating electrical component -resulting in smoke in the engine room, MV Hebrides remains off service.

"Investigations are continuing and repairs will commence today. Sailings have been cancelled for the rest of the day."