Ticket prices for passengers and cars on the on the Sound of Barra and the Sound of Harris are to be reduced the Scottish Government has announced.
The fare cuts are included in the announcement to expand the number of routes benefiting from the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) scheme.
Fares on the Loch Alainn and the Loch Portain will be cut from October 2015.
MSP Alasdair Allan commented: “I have raised the issue of fares on the Sound of Harris and Sound of Barra a number of times now with Transport Minister, Keith Brown, as mile for mile they are currently more expensive since RET was introduced on other ferry routes in the islands.
“Today’s announcement will end that anomaly and ensure better and more affordable transport links between our islands. The rollout of RET, which began in the Western Isles in 2008, will extend throughout all Calmac routes by next year, and I’m glad that this will include the two sounds.
“This further extension of RET represents a massive and welcome on-
MP Angus MacNeil said: “This is long overdue and I would like to see action on the
six-
“RET on the Sounds of Harris and Barra should also relieve pressure on the ferry
from Tarbert to Uig/Lochmaddy, with some operators telling me that it is cheaper
to take a six-
“With constraints on these ferries particularly in summer and with small business finding it hard to find 5 metre vans, it would be sensible in the meantime, before October 2015, to regularise the rules for 6 metre vans on the Sounds of Barra and Harris to the same rules as on the mainland ferries.”
