Stranded ferry passengers arrive home

Passengers from Northern Ireland who were left stranded in Scotland after the fast ferry service from Larne to Troon broke down overnight, have arrived home.

P&O, which operates the services, revealed that some of the passengers got home in the early hours of Thursday after being transferred to a conventional ferry from Cairnryan, however the remainder of those left behind didn't arrive home until later in the day.

In a statement, P&O said two sailings on the Troon service and one on the Cairnryan route had to be cancelled after the breakdown.

"Passengers affected by these cancellations were transferred onto other sailings and P&O apologise for any inconvenience caused. The company will be communicating with those passengers affected in the next couple of days,” the statement said.

One passenger who was stranded in Scotland, told the BBC that he found it difficult to discover what was happening.

"Initially it was extremely poor there was no information from P&O, throughout the afternoon or when the boat departed, until we went in and made strong representations at the customer services desk," he said.

"I've never had any complaints before with P&O but I must say the scant information they gave out to customers was ridiculous - we had to go in and force them to give us information."

(MB/SP)