Windermere Ferry fare rising for the first time in four years

Motorists using the Windermere Ferry will have to pay more from next weekend.

The cost of the 10 minute crossing is increasing by £1 for all cars and fifty pence for motorcycles. The cost to pedestrians and cyclists will remain the same.

Bosses at Westmorland and Furness Council, who operate the ferry, say recent cost increases have led to the change.

It will be the first time fares have been increased in four years, when they come into place on Saturday 29 April.

A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness Council, which operates the Windermere Ferry, said: "All organisations must review the price of their fares on a regular basis and while we do all we can to keep our costs down, and the cost to our customers as low as possible, increases in fares are something that despite our best efforts we can't always avoid.

"We have frozen our fares for pedestrians and cyclists following the latest review, but  significant increases to our overheads in recent months means we have no choice other than to increase some of our rates for 2023. The last increase in fares was in 2019.''

The ferry takes passengers from Ferry Nab in Bowness to Far Sawrey on the other side of the lake, a distance of nearly half a kilometre.

It saves a journey around Windermere of 15 miles (24 km) around either the head or foot of the lake.

Historians say that a ferry has been in operation on the same location for around 500 years.The current ferry is actually part of a designated road, the the B5285 road and crosses the lake at about its midpoint.