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Europe's busiest single-ferry route in £30m upgrade

Getty Images A car and a campervan disembark from the ferry MV Corran. The ferry has Highland Council's logo on its side. The logo is in the shape of the Highland Council area.Getty Images
There are separate plans to replace the route's MV Corran with a new electric ferry

Plans have been submitted for £30m of infrastructure improvements for Europe's busiest single-vessel ferry service.

Highland Council's Corran Ferry carries about 270,000 cars and 11,000 commercial vehicles a year.

The five minute crossing of Loch Linnhe's Corran Narrows links the wider Lochaber area with communities in the Ardgour peninsula in the west.

The alternative journey by road around the loch takes about two hours.

An aerial view of the Corran Narrows on Loch Linnhe. The sea looks grey between two points of land. There is the wider loch, and hills, in the distance.
The service is a five minute crossing of the Corran Narrows

Highland Council has submitted a planning application to build a new slipway and overnight berthing at Ardgour.

Also, on the Nether Lochaber side, constructing a new marshalling area for vehicles, cycle path, parking and a new protective barrier called a breakwater.

Highland Council would provide £10m towards the cost, while £20m would come from the UK government through the Inverness and Highland City Region Deal.

Separately, the local authority hopes to replace the service's aging ferry.

The Scottish government has said £28m could be used from the city region deal towards a new electric ferry.

The money was initially allocated for an upgrade of the Longman interchange on the A9, but councillors appealed to the Scottish government to change investment priorities.

Over the years, the ferry service has been hit by significant disruption with major breakdowns affecting the main vessel, MV Corran, and its relief boat - MV Maid of Glencoul.

In October 2023, MV Corran returned to service after a year out of action.

The boat was withdrawn for maintenance the previous October but this work was hampered by delays.