A FAILING ferry service is at risk of having NO boats on the Gourock-Dunoon run if it is hit with any further technical hitches.

Caledonian MacBrayne — Scotland's national ferries operator — would be reduced to relying on a bus and rival company Western Ferries to carry its passengers, bosses have admitted.

CalMac's stricken MV Argyll Flyer, which has been out of commission since April 6 without a propeller, remains laid up awaiting repair — leaving MV Ali Cat to ply the route alone.

But the firm has already been left without a vessel operating between Gourock and Dunoon earlier this month when Ali Cat suffered a temporary breakdown.

She was out of action between 9.50am and 1.20pm on August 4 after her cooler developed a fault.

Asked by the Telegraph what options would be available if Ali Cat had a major technical issue, a CalMac spokesman said: "There's nothing to suggest there are any issues with Ali Cat that would lead to such a breakdown but if she were to go off for any reason tomorrow then, yes, the bus replacement service would pick up the small number of passengers currently using the service until we were able to have a replacement sourced."

With the Argyll Flyer not expected to return to service until September 20 at the earliest, CalMac says it is 'exploring a number of options to cover the route' but refused to provide details of which vessels are being looked at.

The company's spokesman said: "We would not go into those details due to the commercially confidential nature of them.

"As previously intimated the demand for the route is very low so the single service is more than coping with passenger numbers currently."

The passenger-only service has racked up more than 11,000 cancelled sailings due to technical and weather-related issues with the lightweight boats since June 2011.

The loss of the Argyll Flyer since April will have resulted a further 1,859 cancelled sailings by September 20.

CalMac managing director Robbie Drummond said: "We apologise for any disruption that the temporary loss of the Argyll Flyer is causing to passengers."

A CalMac source said: "It's not an ideal situation now obviously but looking forward longer term to new vessels coming on board."