Foreword

I am pleased to present the Fair Fares Review, setting out recommendations and actions for both the immediate to short term, and longer term, to advance an available, affordable and accessible public transport system which enables people to make positive and proactive choices to use public transport.

Scotland’s public transport system is a key enabler for growth and opportunity, providing vital links between where people live, learn, earn and socialise. We know that access to affordable and reliable public transport services help people and communities unlock opportunities to connect to jobs, education, retail, public services, leisure, recreation, social and family networks. A sustainable and viable public transport system is also vital in achieving our ambitions on Net Zero as well as our target to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030.

The Review was established in the context of the National Transport Strategy which sets out a 20 year plan to support our priorities on reducing inequalities, taking climate action, helping to deliver inclusive economic growth and improving our health and wellbeing.

Scotland’s transport system needs to develop in support of this agenda and the Fair Fares Review recommendations and actions set out my focus for public transport in Scotland:

Our geography means that we rely on the integrated connection of bus, rail, road and ferries and therefore integration of ticket and route connection will be central, as well as travel hubs for connections from rural and semi-rural areas to rail and bus. We will develop a national integrated ticketing system, integrated travel hubs and develop proposals for an all age national travel scheme and fare structure.

Taking Climate Action demands that we support people to encourage that shift to use their car less and use public transport more and so the public transport system needs to be affordable, accessible and readily available with a fare system to match. Decarbonising rail, bus, ferry and Highlands and Islands aviation will be part of this. However in recognition that fares may be a barrier for some, we will develop a proposal for a bus flat fares pilot for an area-based scheme to provide flat fares on bus travel, or reduced fares on zonal integrated travel for consideration in future budgets, to increase competitiveness of bus and attract modal shift from car.

Reducing inequalities means we need to support those in our community - particularly older people, young people and people with disabilities – more, and continue to be at the forefront and go further than other countries in having an extensive concessionary bus system which is free for passengers. Therefore, we will maintain the existing free Young Persons and Older and Disabled Persons bus pass eligibility.

Inclusive economic growth means a fare system that supports people all over the country to access good and better paid jobs and to support economic growth in our towns and cities with easy access to retail, hospitality, culture, sport, entertainment and tourism. As such, we will work with public transport operators and delivery partners to encourage the continued growth of weekend and evening public transport for travel for retail and leisure, working with transport and business partners.

Improving our health and wellbeing means making public transport attractive, as a public transport journey is an active journey. Ultimately, the fares system needs to act as an incentive for people to reduce car use and demonstrate to people that public transport is cheaper to use. While the current financial challenges and constraints of devolution will restrict our ability to deliver what we would like in this area and much of this will be for local transport authorities to determine. We recognise that to achieve this, the cost of motoring relative to public transport needs to be addressed. The forthcoming route map to 20% car kilometre reduction will aim to set out our approach to support this objective.

Of course, our starting point matters. The current system is complex with different means of operation and ownership in different sectors: our public bus networks operate primarily under private ownership and control, whilst ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper are under public ownership. Ferry services are run by a number of operators including local authorities, private operators, and in the case of the Clyde and Hebrides Islands and Northern Isles networks, by operators - CalMac and Serco NorthLink - who are managed by the Scottish Government under tendered contracts. 

As a government, we provided over £1 billion of additional financial support to ensure our public transport services were protected for those that needed them most throughout the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have since seen a strong recovery across our public transport network and we must continue to strive towards our vision and aims for our transport system.

The Review recognises that the impact of concessionary travel schemes upon the outcomes we seek are dependent on the ready availability of public transport services. The investment by this government has seen many successes, which we should rightly celebrate, but we must also prioritise measures to grow bus patronage and farebox revenue from fare paying passengers in the 22-60 year old age range to help enable the growth of bus networks across Scotland. We must strengthen this by taking forward the measures to improve integrated services and ticketing, making public transport more attractive and ultimately strengthening public transport to ensure it is the natural choice for everyday journeys.

It is also important that we recalibrate government funding to better target priority groups and increase accessibility to our public transport services. However, we have limited room for manoeuvre given the extent of funding required to maintain the safe and efficient operation of our networks amidst the challenging fiscal climate.

In recognition of the current affordability challenges presented by the cost of living crisis, the Review has determined that there is a continuing need for a National Concessionary Travel Scheme to provide free bus travel for those groups that are currently eligible. We are therefore maintaining existing eligibility to the National Concessionary Travel Schemes for those groups who currently benefit, which comprise over 2.3 million people all across Scotland. Indeed we are going further by developing policy to consider the best way to deliver free bus travel for people seeking asylum and we will develop the feasibility of a pilot project to extend free travel on rail services for companions accompanying eligible Blind Persons Concessionary Travel Card holders. In addition, we will develop the proposals to provide free foot passenger travel on inter-island ferries for under 22 year old island residents within the Outer Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland Island groups and extend the existing National Ferry Concessionary Scheme to under 22 year old island residents.

Whilst the Review has included some very useful international comparators of services and fares to draw upon and help shape potential future policy, we need to deliver services and fare structures which reflects Scotland’s own experience, not least the geographical and structural context and indeed within the defined powers of devolution.

There are many initiatives which have already been implemented across our public transport system which demonstrate the characteristics of our vision for the future of public transport. These initiatives, illustrated in this report’s case studies, improve the accessibility, availability, affordability and quality of public transport. The recommendations and actions of the Review build on these to set out a pathway towards a public transport system which is financially sustainable in the long term and which provides affordable, frequent, and integrated services that are responsive to the needs of people and communities across Scotland, improving accessibility to employment, services and activities for lower income households.

It will, therefore, take time and sustained commitment and collaboration by government and all our delivery partners and operators to deliver on the recommendations and actions that we have set out.

We will continue to work tirelessly with stakeholders across the public transport sector as we progress the Review’s recommendations and actions to ensure we deliver a public transport system that is more accessible, more available and more affordable for people all across Scotland.

Fiona Hyslop MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Transport
22 March 2024