I really liked this scheme which made commuting much more affordable. Let’s hope they keep it!
There’s an election coming, as this was popular – I would wager it will be extended.
Made permanent? Hard to say. It depends what Scotrail finnancials look like with/without it.
I was certainly happy to see it introduced
I haved noticed the price of all tickets creeping upwards though
It’s a great policy. The amount of money we saved heading up to Inverness was ridiculous.
The difference in me going back to visit my parents after work is £10.40 off peak and about £17 at peak for a return. If I was doing that as a commute 2 or days a week then its a hefty saving.
I’d also like them to introduce a next day return offer. Maybe 50% for the return. Doing the same journey above, its £10.40 if I visit and come home the same, but £20.60 if I go on the Saturday and return on the Sunday
Will be interesting to see how the finances of this stack up – if it has brought in more revenue, and if it has stayed within its budget.
Like the scheme – though don’t travel by train very often.
It’s now cheaper for me to get the train than the bus. It’s fantastic
I’m new to Scotland but ScotRail is insanely expensive. Where I’m from going from the equivalent of Aberdeen to Stirling with a rail card would come out to be around £5 one way. But something different about where I’m from verse Scotland is if you don’t buy your ticket before boarding you would be fined starting at £32 upwards to £100 regardless of where you were going.
So hopefully the new government can figure out a way to make it more affordable for the average person.
Given the quality of Scotrail and the history of trains in Scotland I’d imagine they would want to move away from car centric mentality. Scotland is a very car dependent country more than many other European countries so I hope this issue of cars first becomes resolved with a more affordable Rail system.
Kind regards,
A recent immigrant
This one didn’t turn out like a lot of people had predicted. The idea was that this would pay for itself in hugely higher ridership. But the number of people using ScotRail at peak times only marginally increased, so it’s ended up costing a quite a lot in lost revenue for them.
The Scottish Government partly funded the trial with additional funds. But when that ends, ScotRail will either need to fund by further cutting back services elsewhere or further raising general ticket prices (following on from the significant increases already taking place in the last 12 months).
Or the Scottish Government can find additional funds from cutbacks elsewhere. But that would be pretty controversial for a policy that mostly benefits middle class commuters.
My guess is they’ll find some sort of fudge to tide things over until the election when it will probably be another Government’s problem.
The prices were reintroduced to the machines, which is not a good sign.
I know no-one who wants on peak back, just muddies the waters of travel and 100% punishes those that need to travel at those times.
It sucks.
They should be really adjusting fares to fill the trains relative to demand…
SLab will probably kill it.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if they sell ScotRail again.
£15 million was set aside for the 6 month trial to remove peak train tickets
in 23/24 the under 22 free bus travel is set to cost an estimated £189 million.
Instead of a free bus travel why not make it half price, and use the savings to remove off peak price permanently, half price bus travel for under 22 although I would say it should be under 18 and removal of off peak.
We can’t have everything free
Living in Aberdeen it’s helped me be able to work in Dundee and Edinburgh without spending all my wages on the train so I really hope it’s at least extended!
I’ve never used trains as much as I do now,. I hope they keep this.
it has made me less isolated and legitimately improved my mental health
They should keep it. It’s one of the only things we can all benefit from and especially as train travel is far too expensive in Scotland and the UK in general. The fact that I got a flight to Luton for the some price as an old peak fare from Glasgow to Edinburgh is crazy!!!
Love it. For low paid workers those few £1s here and there over weekdays will add up to a substantial saving.
For commuters as a whole it encourages more to use the rail and achieve economies of scale.
Would like to see an expansion of the railways beyond the Victorian layout.
Look if you’d just become first minister you’d have to be pretty bold for one of your first acts to be raising people’s train fairs
19 comments
I really liked this scheme which made commuting much more affordable. Let’s hope they keep it!
There’s an election coming, as this was popular – I would wager it will be extended.
Made permanent? Hard to say. It depends what Scotrail finnancials look like with/without it.
I was certainly happy to see it introduced
I haved noticed the price of all tickets creeping upwards though
It’s a great policy. The amount of money we saved heading up to Inverness was ridiculous.
The difference in me going back to visit my parents after work is £10.40 off peak and about £17 at peak for a return. If I was doing that as a commute 2 or days a week then its a hefty saving.
I’d also like them to introduce a next day return offer. Maybe 50% for the return. Doing the same journey above, its £10.40 if I visit and come home the same, but £20.60 if I go on the Saturday and return on the Sunday
Will be interesting to see how the finances of this stack up – if it has brought in more revenue, and if it has stayed within its budget.
Like the scheme – though don’t travel by train very often.
It’s now cheaper for me to get the train than the bus. It’s fantastic
I’m new to Scotland but ScotRail is insanely expensive. Where I’m from going from the equivalent of Aberdeen to Stirling with a rail card would come out to be around £5 one way. But something different about where I’m from verse Scotland is if you don’t buy your ticket before boarding you would be fined starting at £32 upwards to £100 regardless of where you were going.
So hopefully the new government can figure out a way to make it more affordable for the average person.
Given the quality of Scotrail and the history of trains in Scotland I’d imagine they would want to move away from car centric mentality. Scotland is a very car dependent country more than many other European countries so I hope this issue of cars first becomes resolved with a more affordable Rail system.
Kind regards,
A recent immigrant
This one didn’t turn out like a lot of people had predicted. The idea was that this would pay for itself in hugely higher ridership. But the number of people using ScotRail at peak times only marginally increased, so it’s ended up costing a quite a lot in lost revenue for them.
The Scottish Government partly funded the trial with additional funds. But when that ends, ScotRail will either need to fund by further cutting back services elsewhere or further raising general ticket prices (following on from the significant increases already taking place in the last 12 months).
Or the Scottish Government can find additional funds from cutbacks elsewhere. But that would be pretty controversial for a policy that mostly benefits middle class commuters.
My guess is they’ll find some sort of fudge to tide things over until the election when it will probably be another Government’s problem.
The prices were reintroduced to the machines, which is not a good sign.
I know no-one who wants on peak back, just muddies the waters of travel and 100% punishes those that need to travel at those times.
It sucks.
They should be really adjusting fares to fill the trains relative to demand…
SLab will probably kill it.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if they sell ScotRail again.
£15 million was set aside for the 6 month trial to remove peak train tickets
in 23/24 the under 22 free bus travel is set to cost an estimated £189 million.
Instead of a free bus travel why not make it half price, and use the savings to remove off peak price permanently, half price bus travel for under 22 although I would say it should be under 18 and removal of off peak.
We can’t have everything free
Living in Aberdeen it’s helped me be able to work in Dundee and Edinburgh without spending all my wages on the train so I really hope it’s at least extended!
I’ve never used trains as much as I do now,. I hope they keep this.
it has made me less isolated and legitimately improved my mental health
They should keep it. It’s one of the only things we can all benefit from and especially as train travel is far too expensive in Scotland and the UK in general. The fact that I got a flight to Luton for the some price as an old peak fare from Glasgow to Edinburgh is crazy!!!
Love it. For low paid workers those few £1s here and there over weekdays will add up to a substantial saving.
For commuters as a whole it encourages more to use the rail and achieve economies of scale.
Would like to see an expansion of the railways beyond the Victorian layout.
Look if you’d just become first minister you’d have to be pretty bold for one of your first acts to be raising people’s train fairs