Oban - Transport

Transport

Oban lies at the western end of the A85 road. It also has a railway station where a number of First ScotRail services operate to and from Glasgow Queen Street daily. The town is also an important ferry port, being Caledonian MacBrayne's busiest terminal. Oban is known as the Gateway to the Isles, with ferries sailing to the islands of Lismore, Colonsay, Islay, Coll, Tiree, to Craignure on Mull, to Castlebay on Barra and to Lochboisdale on South Uist. In 2005 a new ferry terminal was opened. In 2007 a second link span opened, allowing two vessels to load/unload at the same time.

Scottish Citylink operate services from Glasgow's Buchanan bus station several times a day, during the summer a service from Dundee via Perth (Service 973) and another to Edinburgh via Stirling (service 978) is also operated.

West Coast Motors operate many local services and also coach links as far south as Lochgilphead and as far north as Fort William.

Oban is also reachable by plane via Oban Airport at the village of North Connel. The airport is currently being upgraded (costing some £4.2 million), so commercial planes can operate life-line island services, using Oban as a hub.

In 2007 a further airlink was created between Oban and west-central Scotland with a seaplane service making it possible to fly from Glasgow city centre's Seaplane Terminal off the Clyde into the bay in Oban.