the glen sannox is the first major new ferry in a decade to join the fleet off the west of scotland.ed journey with passengers on board. some here taking the trip specially to witness the long—awaited maiden voyage. it is just quite exciting to at last get a chance to be on the boat and come across here. and what i�*ve seen so far is absolutely beautiful. it�*s so fresh, like getting a new car. hopefully there will be less cancellations, there will be more capacity for people to get on and off the island. it remains to be seen, i suppose, but fingers crossed. it has been really difficult, especially this year, - because the ferry has been off so often. - you can be on the island for two or three days with no ferry- service at all, so that can be - difficult, especially for people who need to get over to the mainland for appointments and things like that, i so hopefully this isjust going to be a bigger, . more reliable ship. the ferry is seven years overdue and hundreds of millions of pounds over budget. the saga of costly delays and technical problems cost islanders dear. it�*s been

but now, at last, the glen sannox is setting sail.very excited about it being here and hopefully it's going to give us a really good service. even with the arrival of this ferry, the average age of the ten major vessels in calmac�*s fleet is still around a quarter of a century. breakdowns are common, and up and down the west coast of scotland, you'll hear people complain about the effect of that unreliability on island life. i like the scenery. ijust like the nature, just the pace of life. robert campbell needs dialysis three times a week. when he lived on the isle of mull, that meant relying heavily on the ferries, until it got too much. i love mull. but unfortunately i had to leave because of the ferries, because if the ferries don't sell, it's a helicopter to fly to oban. and of course that would be too much for the nhs. on mull, the disruption has been bad for business too. the economy of this picturesque island revolves around tourism. rhoda drake has run tobermory chocolates since 1991, and she says the days of pride in calmac a

the glen sannox should hav

the glen sannox takes passengers between the west coast of scotland, south ayrshire, and the isle ofheading to and from the scottish islands wouldn't normally attract this attention but this is the glenn sannox and took its first passengers this morning from the scottish mainland to the island of arran. it has come in four times over budget in seven years late, the cost for the two ferries running at around £400 million. it's indicative of a problem across the west coast ferry network where the fleet is ailing and ageing and the average age of the ten major vessels on the calmac fleet is more than 23 years old. breakdowns are common, islanders suffer delays and problems with business and sometimes going to the problems w