SCOTLAND'S publicly owned ferry operator has omitted a key west coast route from its draft timetable raising fears ministers are preparing to hand an effective monopoly on the route to a private firm.

For the first time in 117 years there is no mention in Caledonian MacBrayne's timetable of a Gourock to Dunoon ferry service. Many now fear it is the first step in a process that will see Western Ferries as the only car ferry operator on the route.

The new CalMac timetable which comes into force in March will be published today.

But the passenger service which was started in 1889 has been air-brushed out of the document. The same fate has befallen the car ferry service which started in January 1954.

The Scottish Executive has put the route out to tender without a subsidy, ironically because of local pressure to allow CalMac to compete without restriction. Since the 1980s CalMac has received a subsidy to carry pedestrians between Gourock and Dunoon.

Western Ferries has operated a car ferry service between Hunter's Quay and McInroy's Point, near Dunoon and Gourock, since 1973. Because Western received no subsidy, the Scottish Office and then the executive decided to level the playing field by restricting CalMac to one crossing an hour, except at peak times, resulting in Western, which runs up to four times an hour, securing 80per cent market share of the lucrative vehicle market.

The executive invited three companies to tender for the CalMac service: CalMac itself;

Western Ferries and V Ships, but V Ships withdrew. The other two have 13 days to submit a tender. Neither has yet, but Gordon Ross, Western Ferries' managing director, said he was preparing a bid.

Professor Neil Kay, of Strathclyde University who lives in Dunoon, said: "We know from Freedom of Information the executive and Western Ferries have been having meetings on Western's 'Users Charter', which was contingent on Western getting a monopoly of vehicle-carrying on this route."

He said discussions had continued after the decision to tender the route was announced in December 2004. "In the interest of public confidence, and in view of these latest developments, the executive must publish all details of what was decided at these meetings. So far they have heavily censored what has been made public."

A spokesman for CalMac confirmed the route's omission: "We are still considering the issue of tendering for the route. The reason we have not put it into our timetable is that we cannot be sure we will be operating it if we were not to win the tender."

An executive spokesman said: "The discussions with Western Ferries in 2004 on a possible Users' Charter were not predicated on Western being the sole provider of ferry services.

"The issue was raised by Western Ferries at the final meeting in November 2004 and the executive made it clear such an outcome should not be assumed as it would depend on future tendering exercises.

"Any suggestion the executive has been colluding with Western Ferries to make it the sole provider is wrong."