Calmac ferry fares set to increase by 10%

Ferry fares across Scotland are set to increase by 10% from next year.

In a letter to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee at Holyrood, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said a fare freeze which had been in place this year - at a cost of about £10 million - would be "too challenging to continue" given the financial outlook facing the Government.

The rise, which will take effect from January 1st 2025 on the Northern Isles network and a few months later, on March 28th on the west coast, comes as Scotland's ferry system continues to face disruption caused by breakdowns.

"We froze ferry fares for 2023-24 instead of a 9.1% inflationary increase in order to help people, businesses and communities at the height of the cost-of-living crisis, and to continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic," Ms Hyslop wrote.

"However, doing so meant that Government effectively bore the loss of revenue in the longer term. In the current fiscal climate that loss, at £10 million a year, is too challenging to continue.

"Reluctantly, we are having to raise ferry fares in the coming year by 10%, bringing fare levels back to around what they would have been had fares not been frozen in 2023-24.

"This means, in real terms, fares have broadly increased in line with inflation over time.

"That will help to partially recover the previous freeze, address some of the significant budget pressures and allow the continued support of the ferries network in future years."

But the Scottish Tories said island communities will be "astonished and angry" with the news.

"Those reliant on CalMac for lifeline ferries have endured a sub-standard service for years due to the SNP's incompetent procurement of new vessels," the party's transport spokeswoman, Sue Webber, said.

"So the announcement of a 10% hike in ticket prices will feel like another slap in the face to them.

"The Transport Secretary says these rises are necessary - but they wouldn't have been had the SNP not wasted hundreds of millions of pounds on two new vessels which have still to carry a single passenger several years after they were due to come into service."

The route between Brodick in Ayrshire and the Isle of Arran has faced consistent disruption in recent months, with the usual ferry out of service for most of the year due to maintenance and the replacement also being pulled for its usual repairs.

This has had a knock-on effect across the CalMac network, along with the delays to the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa being built at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow which have gone vastly over budget.

Highlands and Islands MSP and Convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Islands, Jamie Halcro Johnston MSP said:

“Not content with cutting sailings and delivering an increasingly unreliable service, now SNP ministers are hiking prices by 10% across our ferries network.

“This will be particularly galling for island residents on the West Coast routes who have had to endure multiple disruptions to their lifeline services and all the impact that has had on their businesses and their communities.

“Our ferries network is vital for our island communities, and there is a real fear that, if things don’t improve quickly, the very sustainability of some of our islands are threatened.

“That would be a disaster and is a result of years of underinvestment and lack of focus by Scottish Government ministers in Edinburgh.

“17 years of shameful SNP mismanagement of our ferries network has left islanders with a less reliable and less resilient service, but paying more for it”.

The Scottish Government says there have been sustained measures and investment over time to keep ferry travel as affordable as possible.