Some safeguarded staff have travel benefits on Caledonian MacBrayne ferries, but the majority, including all New Entrants, pay public rates.Can rail staff get a priv discount on ferries out to the Scottish islands (EG: Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, Mallaig to Skye etc) or do we have to pay full whack?
Many thanks.
To be fair, I booked Mallaig to Skye for £3.00 two weeks in advance, so it really isn't expensive - much cheaper than I thought.
That's good to know. Do you book directly with CalMac?
There's a song in that somewhere!I did, but as Hadders said, you can just walk up.
I'd travelled 500 miles the night before so I wanted to be extra safe.
An EU directive, you say? I wonder if the reasonable fares would remain outwith the EU.Because of an EU directive relating to public transport in remoter locations, essential ferry services are supposed to be priced in a way that compares to the same journey if made by land. It’s called the “road equivalent tariff.” So for example, if the ferry journey from Mallaig to an island is 10 miles, then the foot passenger fare should be similar to a 10 mile bus journey. Each route has to be designated to qualify for this but many in the Western isles are. The bottom line is that both car and foot passenger fares on many of those routes are now very reasonable.
https://www.calmac.co.uk
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-38969975
There is no such directive. The Scottish Government have chosen to subsidize fares to the remote islands, there is no law saying they have to.
Great information. Thanks everyone. Do they leave many seats unreserved on the trains to places like Mallaig, Oban, Kyle of Lochalsh etc in the summer months? I don't want to tie myself down but want to make sure getting a seat wont be a problem. I'm just talking about Scotrail here, not the steam charters.
In principle, you can just turn up with a car as well. You just have to be willing to take the risk that there's no room on the ferry for you.For a foot passenger no need to book in advance. Just turn up on the day.
In principle, you can just turn up with a car as well. You just have to be willing to take the risk that there's no room on the ferry for you.
I think they give priority to islanders and freight over tourists normally, which is fair enough.There were a lot of disappointed motorists at Armadale the day I was there, a double whammy of tidal restrictions and CalMac replacing the booked ferry with a lower capacity one meaning even booked cars were not getting carried, they seemed to give priority to coaches as about 75% of the space was given to them as well as a few camper vans.