Welcome for John Swinney announcement that peak rail fares will be scrapped for good

John Swinney's programme for government, unveiled last week, was variously attacked for not doing enough to tackle the housing emergency, falling on the climate crisis and lacking the scale and urgency to meet targets for cutting child poverty.

Mr Swinney brought forward the announcement from September to now so he would have "a full year of delivery" before the Holyrood elections.

Scotrail has had to pay out an eye-watering £2.5 million in compensation to passengers for delayed or cancelled services in the three years since the SNP Scottish Government nationalised the company, says Sue Webber

There were pledges of 150,000 extra appointments and procedures before the next election, an increase in drug and alcohol rehab places, and more cash to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap.

But among all the criticism, there was one policy which was widely welcomed - the announcement that peak rail fares will be scrapped "for good" from September 1.

The move reverses the decision last year to scrap the trial of all-day off-peak fares and will come as a huge relief to thousands of passengers who found themselves paying nearly double for some journeys.

The pilot scheme was first introduced as a six-month trial in October 2023, then extended twice. But it was scrapped at the end of September 2024 with ministers saying it had not encouraged enough people to make the switch to the train.

The trial cost the Scottish Government £40m and Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said a 10 per cent increase in passenger numbers would have been needed to make the policy self-financing, whereas the pilot scheme had only increased numbers by 6.8 per cent.

Critics argued at the time that such a rise was good progress and it might well get to 10 per cent if they gave it a bit longer.

Now Mr Swinney says Scotland's finances are in a stronger position, and he is heeding calls from commuters, climate activists and the business community to reinstate the all-day off-peak prices, adding it will "put more money in people's pockets and mean less CO2 is pumped into our skies".

It’s a welcome change of heart on the fate of a popular policy which should always have been allowed to become permanent.