A ferry boss has called for routes in Scotland to be handed to the private sector to improve services and ease the burden on the taxpayer.
Writing in The Herald, Gordon Ross, Managing Director of Western Ferries, said that state-owned CalMac was no longer delivering for island communities and that trust had broken down.
He said that routes should be ‘unbundeled’, with private firms given the option to pick up the slack and provide services across Scotland.
Mr Ross said: “There is also no doubt that the level of frustration across the West Coast of Scotland is reaching boiling point, and rightly so.
“It is difficult to identify any island community that is satisfied with its current provision. Yet there may still be some hope, as evidenced CalMac’s recent charter of the MV Alfred as well as other recent and more notable one-off charters.
“In these and other situations, CalMac and the Scottish Ministers have had to accept that the public sector provision is not meeting the communities’, businesses’, visitors’ or even their own individual needs.”
The long-running issues with Scotland’s ferries shows no signs of going away, and we want to know — Is Mr Ross right? Is it time for the private sector to start running ferry routes in Scotland?
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The Herald has been at the centre of breaking developments on the ferry network, and will continue to lead the way in coverage of this issue.
Here's some of our latest exclusives:
Western Ferries chief says CalMac should not have ferry monopoly
'Holyrood protects Calmac': Should vital ferry services be privatised?
Relief vessel drafted as CalMac ferry breaks down for second time
Mr Ross's appeal comes against a background of a major protest from islanders on South Uist after they lost nearly all services for the month of June due to issues with ferry breakdowns and late annual maintenance checks.
Western Ferries which operates a frequent, year-round car and passenger service between Gourock and Dunoon made a £2.5m pre-tax profit in 2021/22 against subsidised Scottish Government-owned CalMac's £2.35m loss.
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