UNIONS have welcomed the announcement that tendering for Clyde and Hebrides ferries could be ditched.

Transport minister Fiona Hyslop told MSPs today that she had instructed officials to “explore” a direct award of the contract, before a final decision in the summer.

The current operator CalMac, along with its owners in the Scottish government, has come under mounting pressure in recent years with services becoming increasingly unreliable as the fleet aged; a crisis compounded by two new vessels — as yet undelivered — running over five years late and 300 per cent over budget.

Ms Hyslop warned that a direct award would not “mean business as usual.”

She said: “Going down a direct award route would help change the ethos of the service by shifting the focus from a commercial arrangement to a model more focused on the delivery of a public service.”

Welcoming the announcement, TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said: “Many of the problems we have seen in recent years, especially over the resilience and replacement of CalMac’s ageing fleet, have been a direct result of the contracting model that currently exists.

“Short-term funding causes short-term thinking that leads to ageing and broken-down ferries.

“We need longer-term more stable funding and better investment in the service.”

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch welcomed the move as a “step in the right direction.”

He said: “A long-term direct award would bring much-needed stability and certainty to workers and passengers on CalMac-operated routes and protect public investment.

“We will be meeting the transport minister, Fiona Hyslop, to argue that the next step should be a coherent and sustainable ferry plan underpinned by a permanently publicly-owned ‘people’s CalMac’ which has the confidence of ferry passengers, workers and communities alike.”