Fair Fares Review: Our response

We respond to the Scottish Government’s Fair Fares Review, published today (Friday 22 March).

The Review – originally proposed in 2021 to ‘ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares’ – has reported 2.5 years on.

Responding to the publication, Transform Scotland director Colin Howden said:

“We’re pleased that the government has agreed with us that action needs to be taken to address the cost of motoring relative to the price of public transport. Over the last two decades, public transport costs have not only risen relative to costs of driving, but considerably above the rate of inflation.

“These price signals have encouraged people to drive and discouraged them from taking public transport. We see no prospect of transformational change unless and until it’s clearly cheaper to take public transport rather than use private cars.

“But it’s disappointing that the Review doesn’t set out how this will be tackled, instead kicking the can down the road to the traffic reduction plan, which is itself badly overdue. It’s imperative that new measures such as road pricing or parking levies be implemented, and the funds raised to be ring-fenced for funding improvements and subsidies for local public transport services.”

Colin Howden continued:

“We’re also pleased that the Fair Fares Review commits to a trial of flat fare ticketing. This is something that we specifically recommended in our own ‘Fair Fares’ report. We’d like to see a national flat fare ticket for use across all modes of public transport, modelled on successful examples of European-style integrated ticketing systems in countries such as Germany and Austria.”

Finally, Colin Howden noted:

“There’s a lot to unpick in these documents, and there’s clearly been a lot of detailed consideration carried out as part of their preparation, so we’ll give them fuller consideration over the next few days, and in the run-up to the debate in the Scottish Parliament next Thursday.”