Meeting of the Parliament 04 September 2025
Presiding Officer, I apologise to you and to Bob Doris, because I will not be able to stay for the whole debate. You should have received an email about that, Presiding Officer. With the Deputy First Minister, I have a prior engagement with my cross-party group.
I thank Bob Doris for bringing this important debate to the chamber. One of the reasons that I was keen to speak in the debate, despite the fact that I have a prior appointment, is that it is a policy that impacts greatly on my constituency, which has no fewer than nine very active train stations. That is probably one of the highest numbers in the central area of Scotland, and both of the main Glasgow to Edinburgh lines are included in that coverage.
Those stations are used regularly by my constituents, and, as members can imagine, the issue of rail fare costs has come up regularly. Over the years, a lot of people have said that the cost of the trains puts them off using them, so they stick with taking the car, which is something that we all want to move away from. Therefore, this policy is a very welcome step, and my communications on it in various channels over the past couple of days have been very well received and have led to an influx of emails to my office.
I will give an example of some of the local routes that people take regularly for work and leisure and the difference in price because of the change in policy. A return from Coatbridge to Glasgow Queen Street was £8.20 and is now £5.30; a return from Coatbridge to Edinburgh was £27.80, which was really high, and is now £16.40; a return from Kirkwood in Coatbridge to Glasgow Central was £8.70 and is now £5.40; a return from Gartcosh to Queen Street was £7.80 and is now £5.00; and a return from Whifflet to Motherwell was £5.90 and is now £3.30. Those are significant savings for people.
As a result of the comms that I have put out on the issue, a lot of people have got back in touch with me, because they are concerned about the fact that concession fares went up prior to the announcement. In particular, older constituents have got in touch to say that, although it is great that peak fares have been scrapped, concession fares have gone up quite significantly.
Because today’s debate is a members’ business debate, it is maybe not the right time to go into too much detail on that issue, but, given the correspondence that I have had on it, I am keen to write to the minister on the matter. Could he look at that today and perhaps go back to ScotRail to look at where the concession fares are? I do not think that anybody—whether from a Government or an Opposition point of view—would want such a fabulous and great policy to be undermined because vulnerable groups feel that they are almost paying the cost of funding it. I am sure that that is not the intention of either the Government or ScotRail; I simply ask the minister, when he is summing up, to have a wee look at that.
I can see that I have already used most of my four minutes, Presiding Officer, so I will bring my remarks to a close. Again, I thank Bob Doris for bringing this debate to the chamber and I welcome the policy that the Scottish Government has brought forward. It will have a real impact on my constituents, and we are all here to make sure that that happens.
12:59