Brilliant figures for CalMac

AS WE report today, CalMac is claiming some remarkable figures for its passenger numbers. The ferry operator has recorded more than five million passengers for the first time in 20 years, with the number of cars carried rocketing.

This surge in the number of people travelling on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry routes is due in large measure to the introduction of the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) which slashed the cost of using CalMac’s boats. The idea is to make the ferry journeys cost the same as it would to drive the equivalent distance by road.

If there is a downside to this good news, though, it is that some islanders feel a bit swamped during the tourist season. I have some sympathy with that position – and there might need to be infrastructure improvements – but the positives far outweigh the negatives.