Clyde Marine will be sailing back to Kilcreggan at the end of this month, after winning the contract for the Sunday ferry service from SPT.
The Inverclyde company lost the subsidised contract to link Kilcreggan and Gourock in 2012, after 33 years on the route.
Its bid was undercut by Clydelink by nearly £150,000 per year, and the last crossing saw emotional scenes at Kilcreggan.
Clydelink was awarded the contract for five years from April 1 2012, but in January SPT decided to invite separate tenders for the Sunday service, which only runs in the summer months and had not been guaranteed to be funded at all this year.
The contract did not appear on the agenda in advance of today’s meeting of SPT’s operations committee, but afterwards a spokesperson confirmed that the Sunday contract for 2013 had been awarded to Clyde Marine, and sailings would start on March 31.
Not before time. Please SPT find a way round cancelling the Clyde link contract. I am sure it would be worth it in the long run.
i agree clyde Marine is a better company which gives much more reliable Service, I have avoided using the ferry since they lost the contract
Will be interesting to see Clyde Marine and Clydelink running side by side….
I guess the Piermaster’s job is safe for a while longer anyway.
I got the impression the council backtracked last autumn on the jobs – there was a story here I think.
I do agree that the fact two different firms are serving the same route will be a bit unusual – imagine First and Virgin having to do something similar!