The Scottish government has all but awarded CalMac the next contract to run Arran and west coast ferry services.
At first glance this seems crazy. CalMac have hardly covered themselves in glory in recent times, particularly when it comes to providing Arran with a robust and reliable ferry service. A reward for failure then.
But they are not alone in the blame. The Ferguson fiasco has left them short of ferries and the continuing triparate arrangement between Transport Scotland, CMAL and CalMac does no-one any favours – but there is no sign of the system changing any time soon.
What must be taken into account would be the huge cost and time consuming effort a tendering process would entail. If a rival were to have entered the bidding, CalMac would have been forced to spend huge sums of money on trying to retain its crown.
That money, we hope, can now be spent on improvements to the service which can be hammered out in the talks with the Scottish government in the months ahead.
October 2024 may seem some time away. But the sooner all the parties get round the table and start preparing a new contract which has, at its core, a committment for CalMac to provide a much improved service the better.
Transport minister Fiona Hyslop has insisted this is not “business as usual”. Let’s hope she is true to her word.