THE Scottish Greens have called on the Government to abandon plans to bring back peak rail fares next week.
Speaking at FMQs on Thursday, party co-leader Lorna Slater argued that bringing back peak fares will punish workers and students who can't choose their travel times.
Around £40 million has been spent on the scheme, which began on October 2, 2023.
But now the end of the trial means that from Monday, an anytime return ticket between Glasgow and Edinburgh will cost £31.40 instead of £16.20.
Meanwhile a commuter travelling from the First Minister’s Perthshire constituency will have to pay £34.30 for a return ticket during peak hours, up 58% on the current cost of £21.60.
MSPs recently voted to oppose the return of peak fares, but the Scottish Government is going ahead with the plan. Analysis by ministers said the scheme had a limited degree of success in encouraging more people to travel by train and mainly benefited existing passengers.
During FMQs, Slater told the Parliament: “This week is Climate Week. The Climate Change Committee tells us that we urgently need to decarbonise transport. Getting people out of cars and planes and onto buses, trains and their own feet or wheels.
“The Scottish Government’s pilot to abolish peak rail fares, which was championed by the Scottish Greens in government, ends this week, hiking up the prices of train fares for many workers and students who do not have any choice about when they travel.
“Is this the right message for the Scottish Government to be sending in Climate Week?”
Swinney responded: "The Government has invested in a pilot exercise. It was due to run for a six-month period. We extended it for a further six months, so it's been a year-long pilot to determine if this was an effective way to deliver a modal shift, which I agree with Lorna Slater has got to happen, within the resources that we've got available.
"But unfortunately what the pilot showed was that not enough difference had been made to the patterns of travel for the investment that was required and we would need to find £40m to continue with that exercise."
Slater then called on the Scottish Government to get behind a private jet tax to help fund the permanent removal of peak fares.
The Government has devolved powers to implement an Air Departure Tax (ADT) which Oxfam Scotland modelling has suggested could have raised up to £21.5 million in tax annually, covering the costs of the transport programme.
Slater said: “The First Minister is in luck as I have a suggestion. Oxfam has reported that £21.5m a year could be raised through a tax on private jets, assuming it was embedded in the Air Departure Tax, legislation that this parliament passed seven years ago and hasn’t acted on. That’s enough to abolish peak fares for good.
“We all understand the need to ensure an exemption to Air Departure Tax for our island communities. Will the First Minister work with the UK Government to urgently introduce this tax so commuters can once again have fairer prices on our trains?”
The First Minister said a private jet tax is a "very interesting and welcome suggestion" which he is "very much in the spirit" of doing.
He hinted that he would be happy to discuss the idea further with the Scottish Greens as part of Budget negotiations.
