Greene comments as cost of replacement ferry charter hits £22m

Responding to reports that Pentland Ferries has signed an agreement with publicly funded CalMac to extend the charter of MV Alfred for a further five months, taking the costs of chartering the catamaran to £22m, West of Scotland MSP and transport spokesperson Jamie Greene said:

“My constituents have come to expect that anything involving ferries will take twice as long as promised and cost twice as much.

"A similar vessel could have been purchased for less than this lease has cost.

“Disruption for islanders and visitors keeps spiralling and I don’t think anyone living on the west coast has any faith that this will be the last expensive sticking plaster.

"It’s about time someone in this SNP government carried the can for repeatedly failing our island communities.