Evening Services

On shorter routes, the main decision point is whether the route is operated on the basis of a single crew day (Service Levels A, C and E identified in ‘Step 1’) or uses a different crewing model to extend services into the evening. Islands with short journey times to population centres may merit evening services for example, allowing them to access the evening social / sporting economy there (potentially also providing an economic benefit to these centres without displacement from the island community (assuming no similar facilities exist there). Conversely the withdrawal of evening services could negatively affect the town’s evening economy.

Potential Indicator

• For relevant island communities, it may be appropriate to benchmark the island’s ferry service against the level of public transport connectivity (time of last bus, journey times, fares etc) provided for mainland settlements a comparable distance away from the town in question to establish the degree to which the island is disadvantaged in terms of access to the evening economy.