Responding to today’s announcement from transport minister Jenny Gilruth, Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said:
“While a fare freeze is welcome, we shouldn’t forget that it's now well over four years since the SNP Government’s missed deadline to introduce the road-equivalent tariff (RET) on Orkney’s Northlink services. Publicly we seem to be no further forward, with the transport minister suggesting that any further changes would simply be ‘in due course’."
“Throughout this whole process, Orkney has been treated with indifference by an administration in Edinburgh seemingly unwilling to engage on the situation or take concrete steps to resolve it. This has left Orcadians and visitors to the islands at a real and enduring financial disadvantage, with the resources simply flowing back into the Scottish Government’s coffers rather than being used to benefit our communities here in the islands.”