ISLAND communities have launched two surveys into proposals for a new ticketing system on the crisis-hit CalMac Scottish ferries.
Mull & Iona Ferry Committee and Arran Ferry Action Group have launched surveys to gather opinion on a successful system that operates for the Samso island in Denmark.
Mull campaigners said: "We think we’ve found an excellent example of a fair and ‘island-proofed’ ticketing system on the Danish island of Samso. Like Mull, Samso has a population of around 3,500.
"Like Mull, it is a popular tourist destination, and like Mull there is competition for car spaces between locals and visitors during the summer months. But unlike Mull, they have a different method of allocating car deck space. We have spoken to the CEO of the Samso ferry company, and he outlined how their system works."
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The campaigners continued: "The core principle of the Samso system is that two separate ticket allocations are maintained. One for locals and other regular users (like commuters and delivery drivers), and one for visitors."
Mull & Iona Ferry Committee, which set up its own survey, said: "The current first-come-first-served system has unfairness built into it.
"Island residents cannot plan every shopping trip, family visit, business trip, livestock movement, hospital appointment or funeral weeks in advance.
"Holiday makers – who typically plan weeks or months ahead – are allocated car deck space ahead of everyone else. It’s simply inequitable, and precisely the kind of prejudicial policy that the Islands Act was designed to prevent.
"CalMac are planning to introduce a new ticketing system this year ... in the meantime we have been investigating alternative systems that could be more equitable."
Arran Ferry Action Group said: "One of the main reasons CalMac and Transport Scotland have given in the past for not differentiating between visitors and islanders like this was that there are differing and competing views across the islands on how and whether this should be done.
"So the one way we can address that – at least on Arran, Mull and Iona – is to ask you. We have published an online survey to get your views on this ticketing model."
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I HOLD a subjective view that the UK has a fairly unhealthy relationship with critical national infrastructure projects.
Whereas other countries around the world assume that the value and need for say a high-speed rail network is a no brainer, we like to pontificate the case for and against, and take our time whilst inflation ensures the starting cost estimate becomes a distant memory.
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