Return to peak-time train fares will only create more rush hour traffic - Vladimir McTavish

Ministers set a target in 2020 of cutting traffic by 20 per cent by 2030. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

It’s a shame that not enough people took advantage of the offer and preferred to do their daily commute by car

The return to peak-time fares will only serve to force more traffic onto the road at rush hour. While it costs nearly twice as much to travel by train between 4.30 and 6.30pm, bus fares are constant as are petrol prices.

If the price of petrol were to be raised at rush hour, drivers would merely fill up their cars at other times of the day.

Whether it’s a carrot or stick approach, we do need to find a way of making driving less appealing for the sake of the environment. But are motorists going to leave their cars at home just to get carrots?

Quite simply, there are too many cars on the roads of the Central Belt. Electric cars may not be pumping out Co2 into the atmosphere, but they add to congestion. Even a driver like me who is seventy-five percent carbon-neutral, is still clogging up the road.

If you’re wondering how I’ve achieved the enviable status of being seventy-five percent carbon-neutral, I’ll let you into my secret for the sake of the environment. It’s quite simple, really.

I’ve run up nine points on my driving licence, so I’m three-quarters of the way to being 100 per cent carbon-neutral. And if I were to take up drink-driving, I reckon I could easily achieve net zero way before 2030.

Obviously, the carrot of off-peak fares was not tempting enough. If they were to make fares even cheaper still, would that attract more people onto the train? If not not, then the stick of penalising car users would not be popular either.

The only way of forcing people off the road at busy times would be to introduce peak-time road tolls.

Can you imagine the outrage that would cause among members of the road lobby? I can picture the histrionic headlines in the Express and The Daily Mail.

Anyway, it is sad to see the cheap fares scheme being abandoned.

Just as upsetting is the imminent closure of my local plastic-free grocer’s shop, The Good Store in Goldenacre after five years.

They promoted local produce and encouraged customers to bring their own empty jars to re-fill. Sadly this proved unsustainable in the current economic climate and they are shutting at the end of this month.

It is a shame to see any small business go to the wall. There are already far too many empty units on our high streets.

It is particularly poignant when the core mission of that enterprise is protecting the environment.

We have known about climate change for over 30 years now, since I was still young enough to be affected by it.

I remain passionate about the future of the planet, despite the fact that it is not my business any more. I’m in my sixties and I come from Glasgow. Statistically I died about five years ago.

We’re drinking in the last chance saloon. It’ll soon be last orders.