Meeting of the Parliament 06 June 2024
I congratulate Mark Ruskell on securing the debate. I was very happy to sign his motion, because I agree with every word of it.
The removal of peak fares on our trains has been a positive thing. I would like it to be permanent because, for a long time, my view has been that we need a simple fare structure and lower fares. By “a simple fare structure”, I really mean what we currently have on our trains. It was off-putting to have a structure that had people pay different prices at different times of the day.
Irrespective of the interim evaluation, which I think gave a mixed picture, we should keep what we have now because it is the right thing to do. If we reverted to the previous system, there is a danger that it would discourage people from using the trains, and that would be a negative thing.
John Mason—who I see is not in the chamber at the moment—asked earlier for a cost. There is a cost given in the interim evaluation of £40 million. We need to see that as an investment rather than a burden on the public purse. Getting fares lower is an investment.
Mark Ruskell covered quite a lot of ground. He mentioned smart and integrated ticketing, which I would like to see. I am frustrated that the board that the Scottish Government set up to look at that has been given three years to produce recommendations. We need to move a lot quicker than that. The technology is being used elsewhere in Europe and the world, and we could move quicker on it. I have spoken to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport about that—three years is far too long. We need to get on with it. It is all about making public transport, including trains and buses, easier to use.
The cabinet secretary has announced that there will be a pilot of a flat fare system for bus travel. I would like the start of that to be announced very quickly. I accept that we are in an election period, but I think that the cabinet secretary needs to decide where the pilot is going to be. That change could be transformative. I have called for a £2 fare cap across Scotland, and although the cabinet secretary is going for a slightly different system, they amount to the same thing—putting a limit on what bus travel should cost. That is the way that we need to go.
Mark Ruskell also mentioned the Government’s ambition to cut car miles by 20 per cent. We have yet to see a plan for that, so I urge the cabinet secretary to get on with that. We need to know what the Government thinks should be done to get people—
Mark Ruskell rose—