Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Price rise is ‘wrong hike at wrong time’
MSP slams jump in rail ticket costs
A Monklands MSP has said forthcoming rail price increases are “the wrong hike at the wrong time” for passengers.
Central Scotland representative Mark Griffin (Labour) criticised the 3.8 per cent increase, which will take effect from January 24.
Transport Scotland say the rise is necessary “to recover revenues lost throughout the pandemic” – while separate figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) indicate that passenger numbers dropped by 78 per cent during 2020-2021.
Mr Griffin noted that the rise in fares no longer uses a formula keeping it below the retail price index (RPI), and that the new year introduction in Scotland is earlier than the equivalent March date south of the border for the “same extortionate increase”.
He called the news increase a “double whammy”, saying: “Not only has this hike been rushed through in time for January, but it is the highest in a decade. Coming just months before Scotrail is finally taken into public hands, this is the wrong hike, at the wrong time.
“We need to show some real ambition for the future of Scotrail, so that we can finally put passengers first and build the green, affordable railway service that local passengers deserve.”
Transport minister Graeme Dey said: “We know that any increase is unwelcome for passengers. However, the changes we are implementing this year are essential to our wider recovery plans.
“For over a decade the Scottish Government has kept fares increases down by ensuring they are in line with RPI, or even lower in the case of offpeak fares. Scottish rail fares remain, on average, 20 per cent lower than across the rest of Britain.
“We know that there is much work to be done in encouraging people back to rail if we are to achieve our net zero targets [and] have instructed Scotrail to identify ways to encourage increased demand at the right time, in the right place.”
Meanwhile, Rutherglen was the busiest station in Lanarkshire during 2020-2021 – after its 79 per cent drop in passenger numbers during the pandemic proved to be less of a reduction than that seen at the rest of the county’s rail stops.
It recorded 213,110 entries and exits during the 12-month period, compared to more than a million in the previous year.
Croy station had the highest passenger numbers in North Lanarkshire, but with a much-reduced figure of just 193,744 journeys – 14 per cent of the number recorded a year earlier, when it joined Motherwell and Airdrie in recording more than a million passenger entries and exits.
Lanarkshire’s top 10 was completed last year by Motherwell, Cambuslang, Bellshill, Uddingston, East Kilbride, Airdrie and Hamilton Central – all of which recorded more than 100,000 passenger movements – and Hairmyres. The least-used of the county’s 38 rail stations was Thorntonhall.