Scottish commuters are to be given a free week’s rail travel to head off mounting complaints and unrest caused by cancellations, overcrowding and disruption to services.
A £3m package of discounted travel will be shared among season ticket holders as an implied apology for the decline in performance by ScotRail – a gesture that will be met with envy by commuters using strike-hit services in southern England.
The latest ScotRail performance figures showed that only 83.7% of trains arrived within five minutes of their scheduled time over the last four weeks. On one day in that period, services across central Scotland were hit when a train broke down crossing several tracks just outside Waverley station in Edinburgh at rush hour.
Among the price cuts being rolled out in the new year, weekly and monthly season ticket holders on the busiest Edinburgh to Glasgow line will get the equivalent of £95.50 worth of rail travel, and commuters travelling from Stonehaven to Aberdeen will get £32.40.
Humza Yousaf, who as Scottish transport minister has fended off calls to resign in recent weeks, said the package was a thank you to passengers for their patience. At the height of the controversy last month, Yousaf said ministers wanted to work up a public sector bid for the service.
“We recognise any level of delay or disruption on the rail network in Scotland affects people’s lives,” he said on Friday. “This year has been particularly challenging as we take forward our record-breaking investment programme on the live network to deliver newer, longer, greener trains on our flagship routes between Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as further afield.”
The Scottish government said the free week was worth more than the fare freeze demanded this week by Scottish Labour, which has led an increasingly fierce campaign on rail services. There would be additional promotions and fare offers for other passengers.
But Neil Bibby, Labour’s transport spokesman at Holyrood, said it would not help frequent travellers who did not hold season tickets.
“Like everything with the Scottish National party and ScotRail, this doesn’t hit the mark. Labour’s fare freeze policy would have benefited every ScotRail passenger – the SNP’s policy won’t,” Bibby said. Prices were still set to rise on average by a record 1.9% in the new year for the majority of passengers, he said.
