Welcome to CalMac

Providing the lifeline ferry connections which allow the west coast of Scotland's island and rural communities to thrive and grow is a great privilege for me - and the whole team at CalMac.

You will be only too aware of how hard we had to fight to retain that privilege during last year's contract tender. As we now embark on a new eight-year contract to operate those vital services, I am determined to keep improving our performance for the benefit of locals and visitors alike.

During the tender process we listened very carefully to the communities we support and their views were instrumental in shaping our winning bid. We are committed to continuing to listen and reflect upon our communities' opinions. To drive this forward we have appointed Brian Fulton as Director of Community and Stakeholder Engagement. It is crucial that we understand our impact on the places and people we support and become more responsive to their needs. Brian will have responsibility for communicating with our customers, communities, and other stakeholders - including MSPs - over the course of this contract.

The scale of our operations; we operate around 136,000 sailings a year - often in very testing weather and sea conditions - from 50 ports, harbours and slipways along a 200-mile network, comes as a surprise to many, and the purpose of this new quarterly newsletter, is to give you a flavour of the work we do and share some of the stories we encounter along the way.

Thanks for your support.

Martin Dorchester
Managing Director
Caledonian MacBrayne