Transport Minister, Keith Brown MSP, has been shown, materially and knowingly, to have misled a fellow MSP in a written answer he provided to Dave Stewart MSP on 24th January 2013 – an answer to a written question submitted nine days earlier on 15th January 2013.
At issue was the potential performance of the ferry, MV Coruisk, were she to be deployed in a passenger carrying capacity on Argyll Ferries Gourock-Dunoon route ,with the supposed purpose of assuring a more reliable winter weather service.
Mr Stewart’s question was on how Coruisk’s given return crossing time of 70 minutes between Gourock and Dunoon had been arrived at.
In his prepared written answer, the Transport Minister ‘improved’ by 12.5% the figure he had been given in a formal paper from CalMac Ferries for Transport Scotland, on Coruisk’s inability to make a 60 minute return crossing between these two destinations.
The texts of the question and answer [and the emphasis is ours] are:
Question S4W-12265: David Stewart, Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour. Date Lodged: 15/01/2013.
‘To ask the Scottish Government how ands when it arrived at the figure of 70 minutes for th MV Coruisk’s return crossing time between Gourock and the new linkspan in Dunoon.’
Answer Keith Brown: 24/01/2013:
‘Data applied by David MacBrayne Ltd for the MV Coruisk, for when she previously operated an hourly timetable o this service in 2003-2004, shows that she arrived on time in just over 45% of her sailings. A 70 minute scheduled turnaround would avoid the knock-on effect of repeated late arrivals.’
The data supplied by CalMac Ferries Ltd was in an options paper to Transport Scotland, dated just over a month earlier: CalMac Ferries Ltd
Provision Coruisk – Fully Operational
Gourock-Dunoon – Winter 2012-13
Proposal 1.0, 18/12/12
Under section 2 of a three section paper – on Operational Implications – the document states [and the emphasis is ours]:
’2 The current timetable is configured to maximise train connections from Gourock. It is considered that Coruisk is unlikely to consistently make the crossing in time to maintain these connections; and a major revision of the timetable wold be required. This is based on analysis of data from 2003-4 which shows that when operating on Gourock-Dunoon she achieved an on time arrival on only 40% of 1360 sailings, and on 10.3% she was more than 8 minutes late. Initial considerations of a revised timetable based on a 70 minute turnaround for a return trip show a marked deterioration in connections.’ [Ed: our emphasis.]
By offering Mr Stewart instead the doubly false data that ‘…she arrived on time in just over 45% of her sailings…’, Mr Brown was spinning the ship’s actual performance reassuringly closer to a 50-50 situation. This clearly deliberate move disguised from his fellow MSP the reckless abandon of fiscal responsibility to follow, when this ferry was indeed deployed on this route – and lived up to the arrival time failures flagged up repeatedly to Transport Scotland in the documents now released under Freedom of Information.
It is worth noting that the last sentence in the passage quoted above from the CalMac Ferries briefing paper also contradicts the assurance given by Mr Brown that running to a 70 minute turnaround [instead of the 60 minutes achieved by Argyll Ferries two passenger ferries, MV Argyll Flyer and MV Ali Cat] would ‘…avoid the knock-on effect of repeated late arrivals’.
Contrariwise, the CalMac Ferries briefing to Transport Scotland says: ‘Initial considerations of a revised timetable based on a 70 minute turnaround for a return trip show a marked deterioration in connections.’ Put plainly, a 70 minute return timetable was known to offer a substantially reduced number of Gourock train connections to Dunoon passengers.
There is much more to come on this story – thanks to parliamentary questions from Jamie McGrigor MSP and the material released under what has proved to be a very effective Freedom of Information request.
We will very shortly publish tonight on the breathtaking fiscal irresponsibility of the Deputy Prime Minister in persisting in deploying Coruisk on this route during the 2013-14 winter period – against repeated, specific and evidence professional advice.