Delays on ferry fares blamed on the cost of living

The explanation has been greeted with widespread derision as tourism businesses and local travellers remain unable to book for CalMac services beyond March while the timetables are subject to unprecedented delay.

As highlighted in last week’s Gazette, CalMac say “details such as sailing times have been agreed and are ready to be released as soon as a decision about fares is made”. They are planning to publish summer timetables in two phases, the first running from April to early June.

Asked for an explanation of the delay, a spokesman for Transport Scotland told the Gazette: “We want our transport system to be affordable and accessible. A decision on ferry fares for 2023 requires some additional time and consideration given the current high inflation rate and ongoing cost of living crisis.

“We fully appreciate the need to get bookings released for Easter and summer timetables so that businesses and individuals can plan ahead. We are working with both our operators to confirm fares and release bookings from April as soon as possible.”

Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Donald Cameron, who plans to table questions at Holyrood, said: "Islanders will find these explanations quite bewildering and certainly no justification for delays which have prevented timetables from being published.

"What information did the SNP government expect to emerge over the past month which stopped them allowing CalMac to get on with publishing timetables?

"The whole question arises of whether there should be this degree of meddling by the Scottish Government in operational matters. Are CalMac not likely to know their own market better than civil servants or Ministers in Edinburgh? Yet again, island communities who depend on these lifeline ferry services are being failed".

Uisdean Robertson, chair of Comhairle nan Eilean’s transportation committee, described the explanation as “pretty lame” and said it raised again the question of whether the ferries division of Transport Scotland would not be better run from an island base rather than Edinburgh.

“They do not understand the impact that this kind of thing has on island communities. They say they do, but they don’t”, said Mr Robertson, who has also questioned whether delays to a new booking system might be playing a part in the delays.

The chairman of Harris Development Company, Kenny Macleod, said: “The cost of living crisis has been going on for months and predictions about inflation have hardly changed so why has it taken them so long? They do not seem to understand the urgency or the damage being done.

“There is also concern about why the summer timetable is being divided in this way. Are they planning peak season fares which would affect locals as well as visitors? This is not just a tourism service. It is a lifeline service for the islands and that is in danger of being forgotten through the emphasis on tourism”.