Transport
Scheduled ferry services between the Outer Hebrides and the Scottish Mainland and Inner Hebrides operate on the following routes:
- Oban to Castlebay on Barra and Lochboisdale on South Uist
- Uig on Skye to Tarbert on Harris
- Uig on Skye to Lochmaddy on North Uist
- Ullapool to Stornoway on Lewis
- Tiree to Castlebay, Barra (summer only).
Other ferries operate between some of the islands.
National Rail services are available for onward journeys, from stations at Oban, which has direct services to Glasgow. However, parliamentary approval notwithstanding, plans in the 1890s to lay a railway connection to Ullapool were unable to obtain sufficient funding.
There are scheduled flights from Stornoway, Benbecula and Barra airports both inter-island and to the mainland. Barra's airport is the only one in the world to have scheduled flights landing on a beach. At high water the runways are under the sea so flight times vary with the tide.
Bus services are operated by Bus na Comhairle based in Stornoway, in addition, other operators run the bulk of services due to need for competitive tendering.
Read more about this topic: Outer Hebrides
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