Meeting of the Parliament 04 September 2025
Yes, I take the point.
Let me return to what I was saying. I have said before in this Parliament and in these debates that ownership is power. The Scottish Government is now the sole shareholder in Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd, so it must use that ownership—that power—for the common good.
Let me be clear: I, for one, welcome the Government’s conversion to the scrapping of peak fares once and for all. In my view, it is a victory for the RMT and the other rail unions, which have campaigned for it with tenacity and with banners bright, in the face of which the Scottish Government has maintained for the past year that it was only existing, undeserving and—worse yet—middle-class ScotRail passengers on above-average earnings who gained from the scrapping of peak fares, when in fact it was a benefit to all workers travelling to and from their work, which, by my definition, is the working class.
We know that this is about leading a long-term change in behaviour. As the Auditor General told Parliament earlier this year,
“it can take time to sustain positive behavioural changes, such as encouraging modal shift from car to rail use”.
He also concluded that, when it came to getting people out of cars and on to public transport, the Scottish Government had carried out no consultation, had no clear costed plan, had no measurable milestones and had done no equality impact assessments, and he said that monitoring and scrutinising arrangements were insufficient. I hope that ministers will heed this warning and learn this lesson.
I hope that the Scottish Government will also dispel the dark cloud of funding cuts that is hanging over the alliance between Network Rail, Babcock Rail and Arcadia—the rail systems alliance Scotland—which has forced redundancies and is compromising safety-critical work.
I hope as well that the minister today will address the question of supporting the trade union campaign against cuts to British Transport Police in Scotland, and that he will make a statement against the outsourcing of ScotRail customer experience services to the anti-trade-union company Teleperformance.
Of course, I also hope that the Government will address and reverse the big cuts in ticket office opening hours in railway stations right across Scotland, which have been forced through as a political choice. They are not operational decisions; they have been signed off by the Scottish Government.
Let me conclude by saying this: the removal of staff from railway station ticket offices will not only deter passengers; it will deny many passengers access to public transport altogether.
I welcome this week’s move, and I welcome public ownership, but we must have public ownership that is equal and inclusive, is transparent and accountable and is comprehensive and democratic—public ownership of our railways that is of the people, by the people, for the people.
13:07