Thanks to AR for signalling this important message to me.

From the Uist & Benbecula News today:

Meanwhile more light has been shed by Alfred’s owners, Pentland Ferries, on the cost and background for Alfred’s loan to CalMac.

The Orkney ferry company said the £6 million of extra funding to leave their ferry with CalMac for another six months was helping to keep their own service affordable for Orkney islanders, and maintaining staffing levels.

In a statement last week Pentland Ferries’ managing director Helen Inkster said: “I can confirm that, following the successful deployment of MV Alfred on the West Coast routes over recent months, we have signed an agreement with CalMac Ferries for an additional six-month charter.

“This is not a decision that we have taken lightly, but it is a move that will strengthen the business and allow us to develop and invest in the future of the service, while providing continued resilience on CalMac’s West Coast routes.

“As an immediate result of this arrangement, we are able to announce that we will freeze fares for our passengers on the route up to the end of March 2025, an initiative that would not have been possible without the CalMac charter.

https://www.welovestornoway.com/index.php/articles/31293-inter-island-ferry-link-snaps-again

Ferry fare freeze? What does that remind me of? Oh, yes this, unreported by Scotland’s second-best ferry correspondent, Maritime Williams.

A fare freeze on the Clyde and Hebrides and Northern Isles ferry networks has been extended for a further six months. Ticket prices will be held at current levels from October 2023 until the end of March 2024 to help people and businesses from Scotland’s remote rural and island communities. 

https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/ferry-fares-freeze-extended/#:~:text=A%20fare%20freeze%20on%20the,remote%20rural%20and%20island%20communities.