First Minister of Scotland Dragged into CalMac £200m Ferry Fiasco

6th February 2020

Workers Afloat adds at the west Scottish shipyard, Fergusan Marine at Port Glasgow which is building the new hybrid (CalMac) ferries. The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is seen at the last yard on the Clyde during a visit yesterday to reveal that the firm is the preferred tenderer for a &pou Credit: The Herald -facebook

The First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon announced the price of a disastrous contract for a pair of CalMac ferries before it was finalised, MSPs have heard.

As The Herald reports, the billionaire Jim McColl said the First Minister publicly declared the price-tag was £97m while his Ferguson Marine shipyard and the state ferry firm Caledonian Marine Assets Ltd (CMAL) were still haggling over the cost.

For more on this ongoing saga of the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) powered sisters click here

Afloat adds the pair of duel-fuelled ferries destined for Western Isles service include the Isle of Arran on the Forth of Clyde.

In addition BBC News Scotland has more and asked the question: Why are we building gas-powered ships?

Published in Ports & Shipping

Tagged under

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

Email The Author

Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.