Hansard

I thank Mark Ruskell for lodging the motion and all members for their contributions. I, too, recognise the role of trade unions in calling for this policy, as did Alex Rowley and others.

Our public transport system is a key enabler of growth and opportunity, providing the vital links between where people live, learn, earn and socialise. Access to affordable and reliable public transport services helps people and communities to unlock opportunities to connect to jobs, education, retail, public services, leisure, recreation, friends and family networks. Our national transport strategy vision is for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible system that helps to deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland. As a key public service, our public transport system also plays a vital role in supporting our economy, reducing poverty and meeting our ambitious emissions reduction targets.

I say to Emma Harper that there are frustrating UK-wide timetabling issues that currently prevent Scottish services in some areas, as she set out, and we do raise that issue with the UK Government.

The return of rail services to Leven and Cameron Bridge this week is a demonstration of the Government’s commitment to investing in improving public services as a means of growing the economy and tackling the climate emergency by encouraging people to shift towards more sustainable modes of travel, such as rail. Seeing the faces of members of the community in Leven and Cameron Bridge when celebrating the reopening of that line over the past week has been fantastic. That is part of a wider investment of more than £116 million that the Scottish Government has made in sustainable transport in the Levenmouth area to connect the surrounding communities to the new stations, and it will help to transform the lives of families and young people in the area for the better.

On 16 May, the SNP Scottish Government extended the ScotRail peak fares removal pilot. It is a bold initiative that was possible only due to the Government bringing ScotRail into public sector control. As part of the fair fares review, the pathfinder pilot was established and has received £40 million in Government funding. The pilot aims to simplify complex fares and ticketing options and to assess the price sensitivity of car commuters in order that we can encourage them to shift to rail. Simplifying ticket prices is a key factor in helping people to shift to public transport and to rail in particular—I agree with Graham Simpson and Mark Ruskell on that.

The cross-party interest in the pilot shows our collective desire for progress. I have heard directly from people about the positive benefits of removing peak fares. People are saving, on average, 34 per cent on return tickets, which can significantly relieve household budgets during the current cost of living crisis. To counter Richard Leonard’s perhaps glass-half-empty analysis, I will give some examples. People travelling between Cowdenbeath and Edinburgh save £6.70 per day, which equates to saving £1,536 annually if they are commuting five days a week. Those travelling from Montrose to Aberdeen save £5.90 per day, which is £1,356 per year if they are commuting five days a week.

Transport Scotland published its interim report on the peak fares pilot on Tuesday 4 June, and I encourage members to read it. It is preliminary research that needs to be set against a background of increasing passenger numbers prior to the pilot. However, the data so far show that, although the initial impact of the pilot was promising, with a 4 per cent increase in rail demand, any impact appears to have faded since the new year and demand is now close to what it was before the pilot started.

There is some emerging evidence of behaviour change, including shifting of travel from off-peak to peak times and modal shift from car to rail. Results suggest that around one third of existing rail users have made at least one rail journey that was previously made using another mode. Two thirds of those journeys were a switch from car. Of the new passengers who switched to rail, 53 per cent had previously used the car and a third had switched from bus. The final report will, of course, have a much higher response rate, which is what Richard Leonard was asking for.