Caledonian MacBrayne�s MV Caledonian Isles, the ferry serving the island of Arran, has returned to station having completed her annual overhaul, which included a major refurbishment of customer facilities.

The ship, one of the biggest in the CalMac fleet, built in 1993, took up her normal service on Sunday, having completed her overhaul at the Garvel in Greenock. The new facilities, which cost �150,000, represent a major improvement in facilities for local residents and tourist alike on the route, which carried nearly 702,000 customers in 2003, an increase of 6.3% on the previous year.

The forward lounge of MV Caledonian Isles, previously known as �The Blue Room� to regular travellers for obvious reasons unconnected with football, has been completely revamped with new seating arrangement and colour scheme.

The bar area in the ship has also been revamped. Robbie Brown, CalMac�s Route Manager in charge of the Ardrossan to Brodick route said: �For some time we have been hoping that we could address some of the issues which we had in terms of offering customers a more comfortable passage and a set of facilities which enables them to have a wider choice of snacks and light refreshments, over and above the more substantial fare still on offer in the main cafeteria. The additional facilities, which have been developed along with catering Manager Drew Collier and his team, will reduce queuing in the cafeteria and I know that the customers who have used the service early in the week have been very pleasantly surprised to find such a dramatic change of ambience. The forward lounge is more or less unrecognisable to those who knew it with a new serving area and completely new set of seats. The changes have been well received so far and will hopefully attract even more people to the island.�

Children in Arran have now been invited to play their own part in the changes through a competition to name the newly refurbished area on MV Caledonian Isles. Robbie added: �We are asking children in all of the island�s schools to come up with a name for the redecorated area. The idea is that we can attach a name which is representative of the whole island and the community, without being linked to a specific village or part of the island. The wining entry will receive CalMac tokens to the value of �50 (fifty) for use on our services and we are asking schools to make their submissions to the Brodick office by Saturday, February 7.�

Ends

Note to News Editors: a picture of the refurbished lounge is attached for your use. For further information on the contents of this News Release, please contact Hugh Dan MacLennan, Public Affairs Manager, Caledonian MacBrayne. Tel: 0776 435 4021; e-mail hugh.maclennan@calmac.co.uk

Issued: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 : 1100