Ferry fares to rise 10% in the new year, Scottish Government confirms

Ferry fares across Scotland will increase by 10% from next year, the Scottish Government has said.

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 £10m – would be “too challenging to continue” given the financial outlook facing the Government.

The rise, which will take effect from January 1 on the Northern Isles network and March 28 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,” 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 £10m 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.”

And Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur, who represents Orkney, said: “This fare hike will come as a serious blow to households and businesses in Orkney who rely on these lifeline services and who continue to struggle with cost-of-living pressures.

“When the Scottish Government ‘froze’ fares last year, ministers congratulated themselves for having protected island communities. At no time did they suggest that their generosity would be clawed back in future years through an inflation-busting increase.

“People in Orkney will rightly be suspicious of future ‘gifts’ from ministers who appear to be happy to give with one hand, and take away with the other.”

The route between Ardrossan 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.