The transport minister has defended an inflation-busting increase in rail fares by almost 9% from next Spring.

Fiona Hyslop insisted passengers will overall be saving money because of a three month extension in the scrapping of the more expensive peak times tickets which was announced yesterday.

The move was announced yesterday along with the 8.7% rise - double the rate of inflation which stood at 3.9%, according to the latest official figure published in November.

It came a day after finance secretary Shona Robison cut the budget for rail services for next year by £80m.

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Ms Robison told BBC radio this morning that the rail fare increase had been delayed from January last year when they were due to rise adding that the government would not be de-incentivising rail travel as the fares don't go up until April.

"What you haven't said is that we're also extending the removal of peak fares which started in October now that will be extended right through to the end of June next year," she said.

"If you think about the payments people were paying on the Glasgow to Edinburgh return. In September this year they would have been paying £27.60.

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"They are currently paying £14.20 and even with that increase of 9% it will only go up to just over £15.

"So in terms of value we are saving real commuters hundreds of pounds over this period. And of course that's on top of a freeze for seasonal and Flexi passes for almost two years. 

"Pre pandemic the investment in our real services was £1 billion. With costs increasing, pay increasing, we're now investing £1.6 billion and we are going to have to get some more revenue from fares.

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"But that [scrapping of the] peak fare extension - ask any commuter that is currently travelling at peak time... particularly in that major Glasgow Edinburgh travel corridor - they will tell you they are saving and will continue to save hundreds of pounds. So we are being fair." 

She added that the removal of peak fares for nine months would support people "facing tough choices".

Scottish Conservative shadow transport minister Graham Simpson MSP said: “Fiona Hyslop seems completely oblivious to what the eye-watering hike in rail fares will mean for hard-pressed Scots.

 “Workers who have already been punished by Shona Robison’s budget are now being asked by the SNP to fork out almost nine per cent more in rail fares, but the transport minister only showed how out of touch she is about that reality.
 

“It was astonishing to hear her dismiss fears that this will put off people from travelling on the SNP’s nationalised network, simply because they have delayed the increase for a few months.

 “With the rail budget also being cut, it appears the SNP’s latest transport minister is failing in her role in fighting for greater investment in her portfolio. 

 “Alongside these hikes and unreliable services, passengers are getting a raw deal under the SNP.”Mr Simpson later pressed Humza Yousaf on the fares' increase at First Minister's Questions this afternoon, asking Mr Yousaf why he was discouraging people from travelling by train.

The First Minister hit back pointing out the Conservative's opposition to the government's policy of raising income tax rise for higher earners bringing in £1.5bn.

He said: "Of course this is the government that has abolished and scrapped peak rail fares in terms of our pilot at the moment. This is the government that made sure that we froze fares for a number of years.

"And again, we get to the contradiction at the heart of every single Conservative contribution and that is that they are demanding we spend more money, in this case on rail services, but oppose every single revenue raising option.

"In fact they go further. They demand tax cuts for the wealthiest in this country. If we'd listen to Graham Simpson, if we'd listened to Douglas Ross, if we'd listened to Liz Smith, we'd have £1.5 billion less to spend on revenue. Thank goodness we don't listen to the Conservative Party."