This week's Community Column is written by Helensburgh and Lomond's constituency MSP, Jackie Baillie.

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Local passengers who rely on the Kilcreggan ferry service have faced months of chaos and disruption this year. Barely a single month has passed by without cancellations or suspensions since Clydelink’s contract was renewed in April.

The service was suspended again for almost two weeks in late October and early November after the Island Princess failed yet another inspection by the MCA.

It simply isn’t good enough and local communities on the Peninsula deserve much better than this.

SPT confirmed in a recent meeting that a tender will be issued as soon as possible and I hope that this will result in a new operator taking over the route.

Clydelink have completely failed to provide a service that we, as taxpayers, pay them to deliver and it is time to show them the door.

The new contract must improve the reliability of the service as a minimum but ultimately, the only sustainable solution in the long term is for the Scottish Government to make progress on its commitment to transferring responsibility from SPT to Transport Scotland.

The handover process has been hit by delays as a result of the ministerial review of EU procurement rules affecting ferry policy and we are expecting an update next month.

The consequences of any further delays to improving the service would be damaging for the local community. Some people have left the area because they couldn’t rely on the ferry for work.

I have heard stories from people who were looking to move to Kilcreggan and considered putting an offer on a house until they found out about the atrocious record of the ferry service.

Not to be outdone by Clydelink, ScotRail is also responsible for its fair share of commuter frustration. My social media accounts have been buzzing with messages from passengers recently who feel let down by local rail services.

The decision to halve the number of carriages on some rush hour services last week due to ‘congestion issues’ was particularly disappointing.

In some cases passengers were packed into carriages like sardines and in others the trains simply whizzed through stations, including Cardross, without stopping.

This is despite a promise from ScotRail last November to end the practice of station-skipping.

I am meeting the new MD of Scotrail/Abellio this week to discuss the recent problems and demand improvements to local services.