The Scottish Government’s decision to reintroduce peak rail fares has generated almost as much debate among journalists as it has frustration among passengers. The short-term cost to commuters will be painful, but decisions like this will also hurt Scotland’s economy and our ability to attract the investment our country needs.
As the body representing Scotland’s financial and professional services industry – and in a bid to ensure the business voice was part of the debate – Scottish Financial Enterprise has argued that the reintroduction of peak fares represented a tax on work, could stymie social mobility, and would diminish our global competitiveness.
The Scottish Government costed scrapping peak fares at around £40million a year, therefore requiring a 10 per cent increase in ticket sales to make the policy financially sustainable. This was not far off being achieved, with ScotRail recording a 6.8 per cent rise in ticket sales during the trial period.
Bear in mind, this was despite the fact it had been running a reduced service over the busiest months of the year, with thousands of trains being cancelled and a high number of those running being standing room only. Equally, it might not help that the Scottish Government itself is still operating a largely remote working policy for its 22,000 employees.
In short, ScotRail came close to covering the costs of the policy in its first year despite the cards being stacked firmly against it. Few Scottish Government policies have so immediately and demonstrably showed such promising signs of success, especially in recent years – and that is before you even begin to count the benefits.
There is no need to rehearse the compelling environmental arguments for encouraging people onto public transport, or the message it sends to price those on lower incomes out of our main form of inter-city connectivity.
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As commuters will know only too well, a peak-time return journey between Scotland’s two biggest cities now costs £31.40 and many people are now re-assessing how they choose to travel, whether for work or pleasure.
This will have a particularly significant impact on young professionals in financial services, including the thousands of apprentices and graduates who are now facing prohibitively high costs just to get to work. Yet this does not just impact our industry, but commuters across the economy, including those in retail and hospitality who are often on lower incomes.
Apologists for the price hike may hope the opprobrium is shunted into the sidings and forgotten about, but unfortunately the decision is emblematic of a wider issue around our ambition for connectivity, infrastructure and investment in Scotland.
Improving connectivity and infrastructure and making travel cheaper and greener should be top priorities for government. Doing so is essential to reduce our carbon footprint and to show that Scotland is a net zero leader, but also to attract people to live and work in Scotland and increase inward investment. Scotland has all the ingredients to achieve these aims, but to do so requires policy alignment, strategic thinking and long-term decision making.
Scotland competes for jobs and investment with some of the world’s most developed economies, and we are in danger of being left behind unless we are willing to lean into that competition. The state of our infrastructure and connectivity is already a real issue in investment decisions and anything that diminishes it further will be felt by the whole economy.
The chorus of disapproval – from passenger groups, trade unions, environmental campaigners and business groups – was near unanimous, but is not our place to get into the politics of the decision.
Indeed, it is not particularly helpful to boil such key strategic issues down to a political blame game. As President Kennedy said to govern is to choose, and our future prosperity demands bold decisions in the long-term interests of our society, our economy and our environment.
Whether we like it or not, Scotland is competing for global investment with countries that prioritise connectivity and infrastructure. Those of us who champion Scotland can and should have higher aspirations.
Sandy Begbie is chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise
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