After a trend of delays and backtracking, this week’s new Programme for Government (PfG) offers some overdue progress on public transport. The permanent abolition of ScotRail peak fares is welcomed – it’s good to see the Government finally listen to our calls for removing this penalty for rail users when no similar measure is in place for drivers.
But this PfG still falls far short of what’s needed to improve our public transport system and reduce car dependency.
For a full list of all transport commitments made in this year’s Programme, scroll to the end of this page.
Buses not prioritised
Bus priority is a case in point. In 2019, the Scottish Government pledged to invest £500 million in bus priority infrastructure (through its Bus Partnership Fund). Five years on, just 5% has been spent and under 13km of bus lanes have been delivered. And in January 2024, the Fund – the only dedicated funding stream for this work – was paused without explanation.
Meanwhile, next to no progress has been made on plans to reallocate motorway space around Glasgow to give priority to buses and coaches over cars, despite this being a commitment in the same 2019 PfG.This lack of delivery directly undermines efforts to speed up buses – and with them, the wider goal of shifting people out of cars. Buses remain the most used mode of public transport, and they are disproportionately relied on by those on the lowest incomes. Free bus travel for under-22s is an important step, but it does not address fundamental issues of reliability, frequency or availability.
Uncertainty around bus and active travel investment
This week’s PfG confirms an ‘active and sustainable travel’ allocation of just £188 million for 2025–26 – a figure that falls well short of the Scottish Government’s own commitment to spend £320 million annually on walking, wheeling, and cycling by this point. The longstanding pledge to dedicate 10% of the overall transport budget to the healthiest modes of travel now feels like a distant echo.
The Bus Infrastructure Fund (BIF), announced at the end of 2024 as a replacement for the £500 million Bus Partnership Fund, also remains lacking in detail. It is still unclear how it will be allocated or delivered. We are particularly concerned that it has been grouped with active travel funding in this year’s PfG, casting doubt on its purpose and whether it will lead to the targeted investment needed to improve bus reliability and journey times.
Moreover, the bundling of this new bus funding into the active travel line and the shift to a broader ‘active and sustainable travel’ label risks obscuring a real-terms reduction in support for walking, wheeling, and cycling. Unless future detail shows that BIF will also support improvements such as better access routes to public transport hubs for people on foot or wheels, the logical conclusion is that overall investment in active travel has been cut.
Mixed messages on cutting car traffic
It’s promising to see a recommitment to reducing car use after the recent abandonment of the government’s world-leading traffic reduction target – and we look forward to reviewing the revised traffic reduction plans.
But these ambitions cannot be taken seriously while the government continues to spend billions on road expansion. Road-building is incompatible with our climate goals: it induces more traffic, drives up emissions, and locks us into car dependency at a critical moment when we need to (and recognise that we must) be moving away from it.
We urgently need to transform how we travel, for a healthier, cleaner and less congested Scotland. This PfG makes progress in some areas – but five years on from landmark promises, bus users, cyclists and pedestrians are still waiting for change. The Government must now show it is serious about delivery.
All transport commitments in Programme for Government 2025-26
The PfG also contained a number of other commitments on transport. We have grouped these by mode below. We particularly welcome the strong emphasis on rail electrification, increasing the share of freight moved by rail, and progress on decarbonising our ferry services.
Rail
- Abolish peak rail fares permanently from 1 September, to encourage more people to travel by train, reduce car journeys, and help existing peak time rail passengers with the cost of living. A significant marketing programme will support the abolition.
- Complete electrification and enhancement of the East Kilbride rail line in 2025–26, enabling the introduction of electric trains on the route from December 2025.
- Upgrade and reconfigure rail power supplies to support existing and future electrification, with a new ‘feeder station’ planned to enter service at Newton in Lanarkshire during 2025–26.
- Continue procurement of ScotRail’s Intercity Fleet Replacement Programme and explore options around replacement of ScotRail’s suburban fleet.
- Consider the outcomes of local and regional proposals for new stations on Scotland’s railway network, for example at Newburgh and Winchburgh, including assessing the case for investment, alignment with our rail investment strategy, public value and contribution to government priorities.
- ScotRail will continue to implement measures to address anti-social behaviour to protect staff and passengers, particularly unacceptable behaviour targeted at women and girls. This will include further deployment of Travel Safe teams.
- As part of this continuing programme, we will respond to the concerns of railway staff and others that the current general ScotRail alcohol ban – a last legacy of Covid restrictions – is counterproductive and ineffective and remove the ban on alcohol on trains. We will replace it with new regulations that focus restrictions more effectively on particular times and locations, similar to previous restrictions.
Bus & active travel
- Make it easier for people to walk, wheel, and cycle on everyday journeys by delivering projects through our 2025–26 sustainable travel programmes, including the new Bus Infrastructure Fund.
- Suspend use of concessionary travel cards on a temporary and potentially permanent basis as a result of antisocial behaviour when using the card. Detailed work on the timescale and best mechanism for achieving this is underway, including robust impact assessments, the development of a behaviour code and whether future primary or secondary legislation is required will be part of this process to ensure fair decision making.
Road transport & electric vehicles
- Introduce new rural and island EV infrastructure grants to help deliver approximately 24,000 additional public electric vehicle charge points by 2030.
- Introduce a new pilot grant scheme to help households without off-street parking to install cross-pavement EV charging solutions.
- Expand support for skills to help businesses and the workforce adapt to zero emission vehicles, with £350,000 to develop capacity in colleges in EV and charge point maintenance and repair and a further £400,000 for a new heavy-duty vehicle just transition initiative.
- Make our roads safer and reduce the numbers killed or injured, through delivery of 20 mph speed limits on appropriate roads by the end 2025–26 and of road safety funding for road authorities.
- Build on having met all milestones set out in the delivery plan to dual the A9 since it was published in December 2023, in the coming year we will:
- Publish draft Orders for the Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing in Spring 2025.
- Award the fourth construction contract, for the Tay Crossing to Ballinluig, and commence procurement of the fifth construction contract, Pitlochry to Killiecrankie, both in summer 2025.
- Conclude decision-making on the use of Mutual Investment Model contracts on the Dualling programme.
- Publish draft Orders for the Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing in Spring 2025.
- Progress work to determine the most suitable procurement option for delivering the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn Bypass).
- Progress delivery of the next phase of the medium-term improvements at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful and on the statutory authorisation process for the remaining elements of the medium-term improvements and the long-term solution.
Traffic reduction
- Publish jointly with COSLA a renewed policy statement on reducing car use in Scotland, which will set a successor target for car use reduction aligned with the development of the draft Climate Change Plan, and work with COSLA and regional transport partnerships to develop delivery plans for car use reduction, reflective of different communities and places.
Freight
- Provide up to £4 million to increase the shift of freight from road to rail through the Freight Facilities Grant, and a first round of funding for the HGV sector to explore investments in decarbonised vehicles, charging and fuelling options.
Ferries & maritime
- Continue to deliver the major vessels programme with MV Glen Rosa at the Ferguson Marine shipyard, MV Isle of Islay and three other vessels at the Cemre shipyard expected by summer 2026, and begin work to deliver seven new electric ferries.
- Take forward plans to directly award the next generation of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract to CalMac Ferries Ltd and make these services more resilient.
- Progress business cases for infrastructure works at major ports including Port Ellen, Gasaigh and Ardrossan.
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