Ferry commuters are now calling on Government to compensate them as they have been left out of pocket for two months.They say they should “get something back” as their prepaid travel passes became unusable when the pink ferry route’s fares were increased 100 percent.Quarterly travel passes were no longer accepted from November 1 even though they had been bought in good faith and did not run out until the end of the year.The price hike, which doubled the cost of the Paget/Warwick fare from $2.50 to $5, sparked a boycott from angry commuters.Their plight is supported by Shadow Transport Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin who says Government should “admit its error” and hand over complimentary passes “in the spirit of goodwill”.It comes just days after the Ministry of Transport made a U-turn and scaled back the 100 percent price rise to a more modest 25 percent rise.On Monday MPs passed amendments to the Marine Board (Ferry Service Fares) Amendment (No 2) Regulations, which fixes the cost of a regular single ticket at $3.25 from January.Commuter Debra Saltus said most boycotters were expected to return to the ferries in the New Year as Government had “finally done the right thing”.She said: “Of course we are happy with the decision, a 25 percent increase is a lot fairer for us.“But it doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been left out of pocket for November and December.“We paid for passes and tokens that we couldn’t use through no fault of our own, Government hasn’t addressed that at all.”Ms Saltus added: “We want to know what are they going to do about it? They should give us refunds or offer us complimentary passes.“We are pleased with what we’ve heard so far, now we are just waiting to see if there is any more?”The new proposals come into effect on January 2 and will lower the price of a monthly pass from $110 to $70 and a quarterly pass from $270 to $170.Government’s change of heart is understood to have come after the Ministry had to field scores of complaints about the initial rise.The boycott resulted in a reduction of about 50 percent of passengers on the morning and afternoon commuter services and also increased congestion on the roads from the West End to Hamilton.Ms Gordon-Pamplin said: “I would like for the government to give complimentary passes for at least one month to the commuters who purchased quarterly passes.“They paid in good faith for a service which they were not able to use.“Compare that to an airline ticket. If one purchases a ticket and the price increases, their tickets are honoured.“The ferries are running, they are empty, and the crew is being paid, irrespective of whether these commuters get on the boat.“There can be nothing wrong with the government acknowledging that they had made an error, and to compensate for that error with a gesture of goodwill”.Ms Gordon-Pamplin said earlier this week that she has received more calls on this issue than any other in her time as an MP.The commuters have always blamed former Transport Minister Terry Lister, who was axed in the cabinet reshuffle, for “messing it all up”.But they were given new hope when Transport Minister Derrick Burgess took over as he agreed to meet them and hinted that a reversal was on its way.Ms Saltus said: “Everyone is looking forward to going back to the ferry. It’s going to be exciting, the old crew will be back together again”.However, Ms Saltus fears it could be “all change again” if the fare reduction turns out to be a temporary move to appease passengers.Mr Burgess told The Royal Gazette earlier this week: “I don’t know what they will come up with when they do the budget for 2012/13”.Ms Saltus said: “I’m not sure there’s much point in reducing the fares if they are going to be upped again in the Budget. That would be unfair.“Who knows what is going to happen in the new financial year, it’s going to be very much wait and see”.Ms Saltus believes Government should have introduced a reasonable ferry hike across the board rather than only targeting the Paget/Warwick route because “everyone is suffering in the recession”.Mr Lister told the House of Assembly back in July that the ferry route had been plagued by low ridership and that it cost Government more than $1 million a year to provide seven-day and holiday service.And to keep the fare down, Mr Burgess told the House this week that the ferry service’s crew would probably have to be reduced from three to two.But Ms Saltus says the pink route ferries “were always loaded” at peak times adding: “We’re still trying to grapple with why all this has happened. We didn’t deserve this”.Mr Burgess did not respond to our request for comment yesterday when we asked if he would be addressing the issue of compensation.