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21/12/2016

CalMac travel advice - Storm Barbara

The arrival of the UK's second named storm of the winter has been well-publicised by meteorologists and is due to make landfall on Scotland's west coast late Thursday/early Friday (December 22/23).

Named Storm Barbara, the deep depression weather system is expected to bring damaging, high winds with it and an amber 'be aware' warning has been issued by the Met Office.

Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne is advising customers to pay close attention to weather forecasts and to plan accordingly where possible.

"Storm Barbara is well-forecast and will undoubtedly bring with it potential for widespread disruption, particularly on Friday, but also extending into Saturday at the moment," said CalMac's operations director Drew Collier. "As ever, we will do everything we can to safely deliver our services across the 200 miles of our network, but, at the moment, it seems that significant disruption is highly likely.

"We recognise that people are travelling home to see friends and family, and that anticipation of the festivities runs high at this time of year. Be assured, we will make all efforts to ensure that we can help people make their journeys when safe to do so and that we will continually scrutinise forecasts to identify possible windows of opportunity for each and every route. But the weather is outwith our gift and could cause major issues.

"Customers are strongly advised to pay close and regular attention to weather forecasts, as well as regularly checking online at www.calmac.co.uk/service-status, on the CalMac app and on our social media feeds - all of these are updated on a continuous basis and will always offer our best and most up-to-date service information."

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