Here in the Western Isles, we have to pay substantial amounts of money to reach the mainland. It goes a wee bit bananas if you're taking a vehicle across. A return fare for a foot passenger is about £30 / $60, but for a car it's about £180 / $360. Commercial rates are even higher. Nonetheless, ferry operator Calmac is still running a loss on the Ullapool to Stornoway route.
The Executive in Edinburgh has now proposed to levy a Road-Equivalent Tariff on Scottish ferry services. This year, they will carry out a study into the fare structures, followed by a pilot study on our ferry route. It should certainly benefit islanders and tourists alike. It could bring hundreds of jobs and millions of pounds worth of investments.
My only qualm about the scheme is that Calmac will have to be subsidised even heavier than the £32m / $64m p/a that it gets at the moment. Calmac are providing a lifeline service to all Hebridean islands, from Kintyre to Lewis. Everything that is used in the isles comes on a Calmac ferry. Not much comes by air. Subsidies are paid for by the tax-payer - so I hope that the benefits of RET outweigh the heavier subsidy burden.
I scoff at the daft remarks by a politician down in Argyll who is complaining that the lower ferry fares to the Western Isles will draw tourists away from his area. He'll get RET if the pilot is a success. The Argyll islands have their own clientele, if you like.
PS: Photo from my Flickr collection
Wow and I thought our ferry rates were high. Linda in Washington state
ReplyDeleteWe weighed the cost of the Ferry up on our tour of Scotland Guido when we stayed in Ullapool. It was too steep a price to take our car over unless we decided to stay for a week. Since bad weather happened the weekend we had planned to cross over and visit....God seemed to be saying save your money for another day. Crossing on foot was an option and seemed quite reasonably priced for we 'Tourists' as a one off. Not so if you had to do it regularly though.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Argyll MP who is complaining about loosing tourists. He will still get those passing through to take the ferries to the Isles at the very least. But every bit of Scotland is beautiful....he needn't worry aobut not getting tourists.
Jeanie
I like the idea of a toll for the ferry, it's a win-win proposition. Being the only ferry services in the Hedrides, isn't is almost automatic for Calmac to get public assistance? True it's a tax burden, I know taxes are very high over there, but this seems so worthwhile. Not sure what RET is the USA equivalent of. Anyway for tourists, paying that ferry fare is worth it and the toll with help I'd say. CATHY
ReplyDeletehttp://journals.aol.com/luddie343/DARETOTHINK/
My goodness. I hope you don't have to use the ferry too often!
ReplyDeleteBarb