Scottish Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop says more people need to use the trains if the Peak Fares Removal is to be made permanent (credit: Clyde1news)

20 comments

1. Great to hear that the trial has been extended for another 3 months, but I am surprised that Hyslop seems to suggest that passenger numbers haven’t increased a whole lot.

   She says that more people need to be encouraged to ride the trains to show that it is value for money — but if Peak Fares are reinstated, that will have the opposite effect. Fares are already high as they are, if we are to discourage people to drive, we need to make it affordable.

2. I’ll start taking the train when it is persistently cheaper than driving.

3. Short term extensions aren’t really going to cut it, particularly for commuters – Standard commutes between lines around and between Edinburgh and Glasgow will probably already be established for existing customers, in that most who can commute by train will already do so and would have even at a higher costs (with running a car and paying for parking a premium to peak train tickets).

   So the work needs to be done promoting this outside of that cohort.

4. I’m from here but spent much of my life in another country. When I moved back the concept of train tickets being different prices at different times seemed fucking wild.

5. Even at that, the prices are still too high. My husband went to Edinburgh last weekend. The train was going to be £135 return. It cost £30 to drive to Ingliston and back and the tram from there to Edinburgh was £3.85 return…

6. When a return ticket to Dundee costs more than a return flight to Lisbon, Portugal it’s a bit of a no brainer to understand why a lot of folk don’t use the trains. They’re too damn expensive, and people are literally choosing holidays abroad rather than a 70 minute train journey in Scotland.

   Lower the prices so more people actually look at trains as a cost effective mode of transport, and more people will use them.

7. Would be happy to take the train if we had one. Waiting on Network rail and Scottish government to get thier finger out and build the station we’ve been promised for years.

8. After 10+ years of using trains & bike to travel around Scotland, I finally stopped and got my driving license and a car purely because train travel is so outrageously expensive and often unreliable. I hate that I had to do it, but fuck me if I can afford a £60 ticket just to go 100 miles away for the day.

9. I think they could do more to make people aware of the railcards that are available too: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/tickets/railcards

   I know they’ve got signs up in the stations but if you never get the train in the first place how will you see those adverts?

   I’ve got a two together railcard that I use with my gf all the time and it makes a massive difference, we’ve probably saved at least £100 in the past year.

10. I daren’t take the train anymore. I’ve had 3 of the past 10 trains cancel on me for trips to London. It’s too unreliable.

11. Although it’s nice that fares are coming down I wont take a train because a car is almost always faster and more convenient.

12. Where I’m currently living the train service is great and it’s a pleasure to use. The price is cheaper than the bus, unless you need to make multiple journeys. I know a lot of people that have cars that would never use public transport but they really should.

13. Good shit, but we need infrastructure investment to really see the benefits of this.

    For me personally my work drive takes 15-20 minutes, if I were to swap for public transport that jumps to over an hour then. I dont want to have to drive but Im basically made to by that if I want to have any time for myself, and this is living within Glasgow. It would be just beyond stupid from anywhere even within commuter distance.

14. Fiona Hyslop. Aye I remember her – keeps getting sacked for being useless. Jeeeez desperate

15. 32 pound return to Edinburgh from Glasgow.its too much. I’d rather drive and my car has even though it has a large engine and not economical by any means, it’s still cheaper. Probs take a park and ride near Edinburgh

16. Also there isn’t much to do in town. Especially in winter time it’s freezing and wet. Town is the last place I want to go. And I can take public transport to silver burn or any other decent shopping centre.

17. It’s cheaper to fly half way around the world than it is to travel via rail.

18. I try to travel by train from Inverness to the central belt to see my Dad.

    If I booked the first slot to go tomorrow morning it’s £66.70 for an anytime return. Dogshit fares where the only positive is I don’t have to drive on the shite A9.

19. Apologies but I have to be brutally honest here and accept my downvotes.

    If trains were free and 100% reliable barely anybody would stop driving because most people value personal convenience over most other concerns. When I was younger, many (but not everybody) around me had one car, now adays I’m surrounded by people with two or even fucking three of them.

    God knows public transport isn’t perfect but it’s perfectly useable for those of us within range and physcially capable of accessing the services. I’ve been using it all of my life, from both rural and ubran circumstances and yeah I’ve had more than my fair share of fucked up journeys but not once have I starved, been eaten alive by wild dogs or gone fucking bankrupt.

    End of the day all the hand wringing about the cost and reliability is just a fucking excuse because someone else has to take the blame.

20. I don’t think you could fit more people on my train in the morning?