Slave to wind and weather, sailing is by its very nature unpredictable.
Flexibility in your travel plans is wise, though sometimes you need a bit more flexibility than you might expect.
Once upon a time I had a job that required me to fly from Manchester to London on Monday mornings. I flew with British Airways, the once state owned UK national airline.
With depressing predictability the gate staff would commence boarding this peak-time flight at the standard quarter-hour before departure. By the time several hundred peak-time travellers were boarded and the doors closed, our peak-time flight was already late. The pilot would announce that we’d missed our departure slot and we’d sit there on the tarmac for anything up to an hour waiting for another.
Unimaginative jobsworths crop up everywhere of course, but state owned or recently privatised firms do seem a particular haven for them.
Highland lifeline
Caledonian MacBrayne provides a vital lifeline for the ruggedly charming island communities peppering Scotland’s west coast. Sparsely inhabited but popular with summer holidaymakers their ferry business is heavily seasonal. Providing a regular and affordable year-round service for the locals would, for the unsubsidised private sector, be challenging to say the least.
To help the intrepid traveller to this part of the world, state owned CalMac and state managed ScotRail time their services to make for speedy connections and even offer combined ticketing.
CalMac’s timetables include information for connecting trains to major destinations and ScotRail’s route maps highlight links to the onward island destinations their routes serve.
It could give you a warm, secure feeling.
It did for me.
Highland paradise
The map above should have any red-blooded sailor’s heart pumping; a paradise of rugged coastline, sheltered inlets and scattered islands all within easy day-sailing reach of each other. Shame about the weather really. Hack Scotland off at Carlisle and tow it to the tropics, the locals would have it made.
It took an age to board the hordes and an age to disgorge them at the other end. There are forty-five minutes between the ferry arriving and the train leaving. I made it to the train station in fifty. It was unsettlingly quiet.
“Where’s the train?” asked the weary traveller.
“S’gone.” replied the surly Scottish stationmaster.
“But the ferry’s only just arrived!” exclaimed the weary traveller
“Ferry? I don’t know nothing about no ferry mate!” replied the surly Scot.
“Er, it’s the big blue and white thing right in front of you.” answered the weary traveller, pointing helpfully through the windows at the large, shiny boat sitting at the adjacent quay.
“Look, if you’ve got a problem with the ferry, you talk to the ferry company mate! Next train’s tomorrow morning. I’m closing up.” replied the surly Scot as he wandered away from his counter.
Highland prison
To be fair the small print on CalMac’s timetables does point out that “Train times shown are for guidance only and do not imply guaranteed connections with ferry sailings“.
And, of course, any idiot (even me) would know this. Relying on making travel connections is an accident waiting to happen anywhere or anytime.
One could perhaps be forgiven though for thinking that in the peak summer holiday season, for a published ferry-to-train connection and for the matter of five or ten minutes delay to the last train of the day, some consideration might be given.
Forgiven? Yes.
Correct? No.
The train network in the UK is operated by a hotchpotch of franchisees, the business of each being statistically assessed on its own, individual performance. Neither the station operator, network operator nor train operator have any interest in putting the passenger first in a situation like this and by so doing chalking up an unnecessary black-mark against their numbers. If you’re travelling by train in the UK it’s wise to bear this in mind.
Fortunately the Oban tourist office was close at hand and more than happy to ferret out a room for the night somewhere in this holidaymaker-infested town.
And as places to be stranded go, I’ve been stuck in far worse than this idyllic part of the country.
