Train travellers hit by fare price surge
4pc jump in ticket costs will be biggest in a decade
RAIL travellers in Scotland will suffer the biggest price hike for a decade as fares go up by nearly 4 per cent next month.
Both peak and off-peak fares will increase by 3.8 per cent in a move the Scottish transport minister Graeme Dey admitted would be an ‘unwelcome’ one for passengers.
Off-peak prices have previously increased by a lower amount, but ministers agreed to also increase them by the rate determined by the level of the Retail Price Index (RPI) in July.
The announcement from Transport Scotland came after rail operator ScotRail – which is due to be taken into public ownership in March – was put under intense financial pressure by the slump in passenger numbers during the pandemic. The Scottish Government has given more than £1billion to help rail during the Covid crisis, including £450million in an emergency measures agreement.
Yesterday the price rise – the biggest since 2013 – was met with anger and claims it does not fit with efforts to persuade motorists to opt for more environmentally friendly transport.
Jane Ann Liston, of Railfuture Scotland, an independent group representing rail users, said: ‘It is most regrettable that, following the Cop26 discussions, rail fares are to rise by nearly 4 per cent. Railfuture Scotland notes fuel duty has been frozen for over ten years and that the real cost of motoring has fallen.
‘It is difficult to see how people will be persuaded to forsake their fossilfuel vehicles for the more environmentally friendly railway with this growing discrepancy in costs.’
Scottish Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby said it was ‘wildly reckless to hit passengers with this brutal rip-off fare rise while a costany
‘Passengers forced to cough up’
of-living crisis rages on’. With a similar price hike in England not coming in until March, Mr Bibby added: ‘Scotland’s passengers will be forced to cough up extra months before the rest of the UK because of the SNP’s decision to plough ahead with this in January.’
Kevin Lindsay, of train drivers’ union Aslef, said: ‘Scotland cannot meet its environmental obligations without a world-class rail service that shifts people and goods from cars and lorries on to trains.
‘If we are to shift people from road to rail we need to create a service that is fully staffed, with affordable fares, stations that are accessible and trains that are clean, green and attractive.’
Mr Dey said rail services needed to be put back on a ‘sustainable footing’. He said: ‘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 off-peak fares.
‘Scottish rail fares remain, on average, 20 per cent lower than across the rest of Great Britain. We know increase is unwelcome for passengers. However, the changes we’re implementing this year are essential to our wider recovery plans.’
He added: ‘We know there is much work to be done in encouraging people back to rail if we are to achieve our net zero targets. That is why we have instructed ScotRail to identify ways to encourage increased demand at the right time, in the right place, as we continue to recover from the pandemic.’