West End commuters were left fuming on Tuesday night when their evening ferry service out of Hamilton was overrun by cruise ship passengers, forcing regulars to wait or take lengthy bus journeys to get home.

Marine and Ports say it was a one-off problem caused by a very large cruise ship but one passenger said every summer commuters were edged out of their 5.30 p.m. service by cruise ship clientele.

Assistant Director Harbour Master Michael Dolding said there were never more than 140 passengers on the 5.30 p.m. ferry, which has a capacity for 250 people.

Commuter Dr. David Galloway said: "That's a lie. I have plenty of witnesses that last summer, the summer before that and the summer before that at times the ferry left early. If he is telling you that it never left early and it never had more than 140 passengers then he is either ignorant or lying.'' But Mr. Dolding stuck to his guns. He said: "He's mistaken. This became an issue at the beginning of last summer.

"We counted the number of passengers boarding the ferries and I recollect there was never more than 140 on the ferry.'' Mr. Dolding admitted upper deck space was at a premium on fine evenings but he said there was standing space below.

And he said some commuters got used to a sitting in the same seat every day over the winter and felt put out when cruise ship passengers took them.

He said some commuters had even called for cruise ship passengers to be banned from the trips.

He said: "It's difficult to ban cruise ship passengers. I don't think that's fair. We operate on a first come, first served basis.'' He said signs would go up advising cruise ship passengers that the 6 p.m.

ferry would actually get them back to their ship before the 5.30 one, which stops at other sites in the West End before Dockyard.

And he said a ferry crew member would also point this fact out to tourists.

On Tuesday the ferry terminal was overrun by 750 passengers from the Millennium .

Passenger Liz Counsell said the terminal had been clogged up as each tourist had to buy a token.

She said: "Why didn't they sell the tokens on the ferry? Some of them are quite heavy and have difficulty getting through the turnstyles.'' Commuter Cindy Campbell said: "Why didn't they put on a tender? It was a huge ship.'' Marine and Ports Director Ron Ross said: "You can't force them to use the tender, at one time they used it but the cost is so high so they just let people use the normal ferries.

"It's very expensive to run that boat, it has six crew.'' Mr. Dolding said of the Millennium flap: "We should have anticipated this when all those people were in Hamilton.'' He said he would be studying the cruise ship schedule to make sure the ferry service wouldn't get caught out by any other one-off cruise ship visits.

He said: "In the first instance we will encourage agents to persuade ship owners to charter the tenders.

"However if they decline to do that we are then faced with the problem that rather than be overtaken by events as happened on Tuesday night we will schedule in extra lift -- extra ferries or tenders -- to make sure passengers are not inconvenienced.''