If only rail travel was as cheap as talk of saving the planet

Scotrail will increase fares by 3.8 per cent in April

Bringing ScotRail into public ownership was supposed to be a victory for the people, just when will commuters start to feel the benefit?

Living in a city like Edinburgh with its cobbled streets, endless roadworks and traffic backed up for miles, there are lots of people who would rather take the train to work, or for trips and days and nights out. Yet, with some of the highest rail fares in Europe, far too many people are still dependent on their cars.

ScotRail has a problem it can easily solve. People love trains, but don’t travel on them because they are too expensive, unreliable or inaccessible.

When the Scottish Government ended Abellio’s private ownership of ScotRail early there was jubilation across the country.

Finally back in public ownership, Scotland would have a railway that focused on improving services, expanding the network and prioritising passengers instead of sending profits back to fund improvements of the German railways.

And while there have been some improvements, not enough is being done to encourage people to leave the car at home.

When the Scottish Greens were in government, we secured the removal of peak fares. This took away the unfair tax on workers and students who use the train to commute during regular business hours.

Why should working between 9am and 5pm mean you pay a surplus on your ticket? In some cases, peak fares see the price of a ticket rise by more than 65 per cent, with the difference between a peak and off-peak return between Edinburgh and Glasgow reaching 94 per cent.

It should not cost £32.60 to visit Glasgow for the day. That is bad for people, bad for the planet and bad for Scotland’s economy.

As soon as Greens were out of the room, the SNP ended the trial claiming it hadn’t been a success. This was despite commuters saving hundreds of pounds and passenger numbers rising by nearly 7 per cent in the 11 months the trial was in place and competing against repeated timetable reductions – the result of the government failing to engage with our hard-working rail unions.

Research shows that it takes nearly three years for societies to adapt to large social changes such as moving to take the train to work every day. To achieve such a notable hike in such a short period demonstrates Scotland is desperate to make Green choices. We just need to make them affordable and available. If only our train tickets were as cheap as the government’s talk of saving the planet.

​Lorna Slater is co-leader of the Scottish Green Party