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CalMac ferry contract confirmed
Ministers have confirmed that ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne has been awarded the contract to run the Clyde and Hebrides services.
It formally marks the end of the previous Scottish Government's controversial tendering process.
State-owned CalMac, which already operates the services, was forced to tender for the routes in a bid to satisfy European competition rules.
Two private operators who expressed an interest pulled out of the process.
After a parliamentary battle, the previous Labour/Lib Dem administration finally persuaded Holyrood that offering CalMac routes to the private sector was the only way of satisfying EU competition demands.
Only bidder
In the event, the only private operators who expressed interest in the more than 20 routes - the offshore company V Ships, and Dunoon's Western Ferries - pulled out.
This left CalMac as the only bidder.
Despite bitterly opposing the process, the incoming SNP administration decided to see it out as the quickest way of settling the six year contract, which last year cost the taxpayer about £30m.
However Gourock to Dunoon, where even CalMac failed to bid, remains to be settled.
It formally marks the end of the previous Scottish Government's controversial tendering process.
State-owned CalMac, which already operates the services, was forced to tender for the routes in a bid to satisfy European competition rules.
Two private operators who expressed an interest pulled out of the process.
After a parliamentary battle, the previous Labour/Lib Dem administration finally persuaded Holyrood that offering CalMac routes to the private sector was the only way of satisfying EU competition demands.
Only bidder
In the event, the only private operators who expressed interest in the more than 20 routes - the offshore company V Ships, and Dunoon's Western Ferries - pulled out.
This left CalMac as the only bidder.
Despite bitterly opposing the process, the incoming SNP administration decided to see it out as the quickest way of settling the six year contract, which last year cost the taxpayer about £30m.
However Gourock to Dunoon, where even CalMac failed to bid, remains to be settled.
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