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Ardnish Ferries

Two small car ferries and a timetable that no longer matched the crossings.

Service

Operations

Sector

Ferries

Location

West Highlands

Year

2024

A small car ferry at a stone slipway with cars waiting on the shore at dusk

Result

of sailings on time

78%

94%

The challenge

Ardnish runs two car ferries on three short routes. The timetable had not changed since 2009, but traffic and loading times had, and one sailing in five left late.

What we did

We timed 300 crossings, loading and unloading included, and spent a week on the slipways. The new timetable adds four minutes where loading runs long and moves one sailing to fit the school day.

What changed

On-time sailings rose from 78% to 94% in the first summer, with the same two boats and crews.

A deckhand in a hi-vis jacket holding a coiled rope on a ferry deck

A small white ferry crossing a calm sound between islands at sunset

They stood on the slip at six in the morning with stopwatches. Nobody had done that before.

Duncan MacRae, owner

Worked on this:

Callum Reid, partner. Tom Akande, consultant.

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