Colintraive - Rhubodach
Headline route information
- Mainland port: Colintraive
- Island port: Rhubodach
- Check-in-time: 5-minutes prior to departure for passengers and cars
- Crossing time: 5 minutes
- Vessels: MV Loch Dunvegan
- Overnight berth: Colintraive
Introduction
The Colintraive – Rhubodach route provides the so-called ‘back door to Bute’ and is important for both resident and visitor travel, as well as integrated Bute and Cowal supply-chains. For these reasons, it is operated on a consistent basis all year round and is one of the few routes on the network that is double crewed, facilitating a long operating day.
The route is typically operated by MV Loch Dunvegan on a year-round basis, one of the largest of the Loch Class fleet in car carrying terms.
Step 1: Route Service Level
The table below sets out the incremental ‘Route Service Levels’ which have been developed for this methodology:
| Level | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A | Shared single vessel, single crewed | Several routes in Orkney including: Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre; Stromness - Graemsay / Hoy; and Houton - Lyness / Flotta |
| B | Shared single vessel, with more than a single crew | Uig - Tarbert / Lochmaddy (summer, currently) |
| C | Dedicated single vessel, single crewed | Various 'small vessel' routes in the CHFS network, e.g., Sconser - Raasay, Tayinloan - Gigha etc |
| D | Dedicated single vessel with more than a single crew | Colintraive - Rhubodach, which uses a shift system to offer an extended operating day |
| E | Two dedicated vessels, each with a single crew | There are no routes with this operating model currently, Wemyss Bay - Rothesay being the closest |
| F | Two dedicated vessels, with one operating with more than a single crew | Several routes on the Shetland inter-island network, e.g., Symbister - Laxo / Vidlin |
| G | Two dedicated vessels, with both operating with more than a single crew | CalMac Ferries Ltd (CFL) Gourock - Dunoon route |
Please note, the operating day of a single crewed vessel is limited to the maximum hours that can be delivered by a single crew within the hours of work regulations and crew contractual agreements. More than ‘a single crew’ is where a small number of additional crew are added to the complement to extend the operating day However, this falls short of a full extra crew.
Where the table refers to ‘more than a single crew’ (Levels B, D, F and G), this could be a small additional crew complement to extend the day or a full second crew. The crewing model will be described in the narrative which follows.
The table below allocates the Colintraive - Rhubodach route to its relevant Route Service Level for both the winter and summer timetables, with commentary provided in the following sections.
| Timetable/Route Service Level | Level A | Level B | Level C | Level D | Level E | Level F | Level G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Summer | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Categorisation of waters
The Colintraive - Rhubodach route operates in Category C waters and thus is governed by Merchant Shipping Notice 1876 Working Time: Inland Waterways Regulations 2003 as Amended. The provisions of this legislation are covered in Merchant Shipping Notice (MSN) 1876.
The key provisions of this legislation are as follows:
- ‘Working time’ relates to:
- Any period, including overtime, during which an employee is working
- Any period during which an employee is receiving training
- Any additional period which is to be treated as working time for the purpose of these Regulations under a relevant agreement
- Maximum working time is defined as follows – working hours should not exceed:
- 14 hours in any 24-hour period
- 84 hours in any seven-day period
- Working time over a full year (i.e. any 52-week period) should not exceed 2,304 hours
- The employer must ensure that any employee does not work more than 48 hours for any seven-day period, averaged over 52 weeks (i.e. annualised hours)
- In terms of rest periods, workers must have at least:
- 10 hours in each 24-hour period, of which at least six hours are uninterrupted
- 84 hours in any seven-day period
- Section 17 of MSN 1876 makes provision for seasonal work, thus facilitating differential summer and winter timetables, as is common with ferry operations across Scotland:
- A season is defined as no more than nine consecutive months in any 12-month period in which activities are tied to certain times of the year as a result of external circumstances such as weather conditions or tourist demand
Length of operating day
Winter and summer
The table below summarises the length of the operating day and week for the Colintraive - Rhubodach service.
| Day | Start-Up | Sailing-Day | Close Down | Length of operating day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 0:30 | 15:35 | 0:30 | 16:35 |
| Tuesday | 0:30 | 15:35 | 0:30 | 16:35 |
| Wednesday | 0:30 | 15:35 | 0:30 | 16:35 |
| Thursday | 0:30 | 15:35 | 0:30 | 16:35 |
| Friday | 0:30 | 15:35 | 0:30 | 16:35 |
| Saturday | 0:30 | 15:35 | 0:30 | 16:35 |
| Sunday | 0:30 | 12:35 | 0:30 | 13:35 |
| Total | 3:30 | 106:05 | 3:30 | 113:05 |
The Colintraive – Rhubodach route operates with two crews on any given day, a dayshift and a backshift, which facilitates the long operating day. The crew work on a week-on, week-off basis.
Route specific characteristics
- None of note
Step 2: Analysis of connectivity
This section summarises headline connectivity in terms of the number of ferry connections provided and time on-mainland and on-island. The interactive dashboard includes further detailed connectivity analysis, including information related to onward connectivity.
Winter and Summer Connections
As noted in the introduction, there is no winter / summer differential on this route. The tables below summarise the first departure, last arrival, number of connections per day and time on mainland / island. It should be noted that time on mainland and time on island are calculated from published timetables.
| Sailing Details | Mon-Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|
| First departure | 05:30 | 08:30 |
| Last arrival | 21:05 | 21:05 |
| No. of sailings | 32 | 26 |
| Time on mainland | 15:10 | 12:10 |
| Time on island | Nil | Nil |
| Sailing Details | Mon-Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|
| First departure | 05:40 | 08:40 |
| Last arrival | 21:00 | 21:00 |
| No. of sailings | 32 | 26 |
| Time on mainland | Nil | Nil |
| Time on island | 15:25 | 12:25 |
The Colintraive – Rhubodach route operates on a broadly similar pattern across the week and year, although there are minor timing variations on a Saturday relative to the rest of the week. As is common on public transport services across the UK, the Sunday service commences slightly later in the morning, but otherwise offers an equivalent timetable to the other days of the week.
Connecting public transport
The interactive dashboard incorporates a detailed breakdown of onward connectivity from all ports on the network, including connecting bus and rail services and contour-based journey time mapping. Key headlines include:
- The primary bus service at Colintraive is the 478, which operates between Dunoon and Portavadie. However, this service only calls at Colintraive three times per day, with two services to Portavadie and one to Dunoon
- As with Colintraive, the bus service at Rhubodach is infrequent, highlighting the largely car-based nature of this route
The figures below show onward connectivity (drive times) by car from Colintraive and Rhubodach. This is broken down to journey times of 0 minutes (in blue), 1-30 minutes (in green), 31-60 minutes (in yellow), 61-90 minutes (in amber) and 91-120 minutes (in red):
Step 3: Carryings, capacity utilisation and performance
This section sets out the key route headlines with regards to carryings, capacity utilisation and performance – described in the form of answers to questions. The data / charts underlying this commentary are included in Appendix A, and detailed route specific data, including sailing-by-sailing analysis, is provided in the interactive dashboard. The appendix covers the period to the end of calendar year 2022, as a full year of 2023 sailing-by-sailing data was not available at the time of its production.
What have been the key supply-side changes since 2014?
In order to understand recent route trends with regards to carryings, capacity utilisation and performance, it is important to record the primary supply-side changes over the last decade or so.
2015
- Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) was introduced onto the Colintraive - Rhubodach route in October 2015. This led to the average passenger and car fares being reduced by 31% and 22% respectively, as can be seen on page 15 of Transport Scotland’s Evaluation of Road Equivalent Tariff on the Clyde and Hebridean Network.
2018
- New slipways were built on both sides of the crossing
How have carryings changed over time?
- The Colintraive – Rhubodach route is somewhat unusual on the network in that passenger carryings actually reduced following the introduction of RET in 2015 (following an initial increase in 2016). This was partly because the scale of fares reduction on the Wemyss Bay – Rothesay route was larger and there was something of a substitution effect. Passenger carryings in 2019 were down 7% on their 2014 level, compared to an 8% increase on Wemyss Bay - Rothesay
- The above said, car carryings did increase by 16%, although this was less than half the rate of growth on Wemyss Bay - Rothesay (34%)
- The same issue also led to a sharp reduction in CVs (down 32% between 2014 and 2019) and coach traffic (down 28%). The reclassification of the length at which a vehicle is defined as ‘commercial’ from five metres to six metres when RET was introduced will also have contributed to the reduction in CV traffic, as this route is well-suited to van-based travel
- Carryings have also not fully recovered post-pandemic, with passenger carryings in 2022 at 88% of their 2019 level and car carryings at 93%
- When comparing 2022 to 2014, car carryings have actually increased by 8%, but passenger carryings have reduced by 18%
How has reliability and punctuality changed over time?
- The sheltered nature of the Colintraive – Rhubodach route makes cancellations relatively infrequent, generally around 1%-2%
- Delays also account for only a very small proportion of the total services operated (fewer than 5% of sailings are delayed in all years)
Why are sailings cancelled?
- Despite the sheltered nature of the route, adverse weather is generally the main cause of cancellations
- However, there has been a small number of cancellations in each year associated with mechanical problems, 2018 being the peak year for this
- There were around 200 sailings cancelled in 2022 categorised as “emergency”, which it is understood is a result of COVID-19-related service suspensions (e.g., due to crew having to self-isolate)
Why are sailings delayed?
- It should be noted again here that delays on this route are uncommon. In 2022, there were fewer than 40 late sailings out of almost 23,000 operated
- The main causes of delay are adverse weather, knock-on delays from a previous sailing and, in some years, mechanical problems
How many days per year do services operate to timetable?
- Almost nine in every ten sailing days have operated to timetable (i.e., all sailings on that day arrived on time) over the period 2014-2022
- As noted above, the Colintraive - Rhubodach route is one of the most intensively operated on the network, and therefore a better measure here is the percentage of individual sailings operated to time. This has generally been around 97%-99% over the period 2014-2022. With 64 single sailings on a summer weekday, this is a very high level of punctuality
How often has the vehicle deck been full or nearly full?
2014-2022
- The high frequency service on this route and the relatively large vessel, MV Loch Dunvegan, means that the vehicle deck is almost never pressured
2022 by month
- Bute is an island with high seasonal demand and thus vehicle deck utilisation is higher in the summer months but there is still plentiful capacity on most sailings and certainly across the sailing day
Forthcoming Changes
It is understood that this route is part of the CMAL Small Vessels Replacement Programme (SVRP), a large-scale procurement and replacement programme for the existing Loch Class fleet. The timing of new vessels being introduced is unknown at present.