Reduces Inequalities
There are three outcomes under the Reduces Inequalities priority:
- Will provide fair access to services we need;
- Will be easy to use for all; and,
- Will be affordable for all
We are progressing the activities set out in the 2024-2026 Accessible Travel Framework Delivery Plan. Activities are spread across seven workstreams, including clear pathways, journey planning, improving passenger experience, and improving the evidence base. Planning for the Framework’s successor, including a stakeholder engagement route map, will continue.
The Accessible Travel Programme Delivery Board will continue to meet to ensure progress is made against the Framework Delivery Plan. We will engage further with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations, including the Mobility and Access Committee (MACS) and Disability Equality Scotland, to ensure that the successor Framework accurately represents the challenges and opportunities that disabled people face while travelling.
We will continue to sponsor MACS, which advocates for accessible transport and ensures disabled people are meaningfully involved in policymaking across all modes. MACS will continue to advise on rail, ferries, aviation, public and community transport, and active travel, while also addressing cross‑cutting issues and future transport technologies. The Committee will support Transport Scotland in developing the successor Accessible Travel Framework.
We will continue to support delivery of concessionary travel and the National Concessionary Travel Schemes for those groups who currently benefit, carrying out further policy development to consider better targeting of public funds towards supporting access to public transport for those who need it most.
As of 1 March 2026, children and young people in Scotland have now made over 289 million journeys since the Scottish Government introduced free bus travel for under-22s four years ago. The scheme has transformed how young people are accessing public transport, helping to eradicate child poverty, support climate action and boost the economy by opening access to education, jobs and leisure. Over 80% of eligible young people now have access to the scheme through a National Entitlement Card or Young Scot National Entitlement Card.
We launched the Bus Infrastructure Fund on 10 September 2025, which is delivering improvements for passengers as well as continuing the development of more ambitious schemes across the country. By the end of March 2026, the fund will have delivered improved passenger waiting areas including lighting and information at Ninewells Hospital, bus priority at a number of traffic signals in Glasgow and Midlothian to reduce passenger journey times, and a bus gate in West Edinburgh. The widespread upgrade and expansion of Real Time Passenger Information including in Falkirk, Dunfermline, Clackmannanshire, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Shetland.
Following an announcement as part of the Scottish Budget 2026-27, £1.8 million is being invested in the Northern Isles ferry services to reduce fares for islanders to low season rates, making travel more affordable year-round.
From 24 March 2026, islanders in Orkney and Shetland will benefit from the removal of mid and peak season fares on the Northern Isles Ferry Services, operated by Serco NorthLink.
From June 2025, young people aged 19-21 who live on Scottish islands are eligible for concessionary ferry vouchers for travel between their home island and the Scottish mainland. The voucher scheme provides four single (or two return) free ferry trips each year to eligible island residents in Orkney, Shetland, the Outer Hebrides, islands in North Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute and Highland Council areas. The scheme currently supports young people aged 16-18 and full-time volunteers up to 25. We will monitor and evaluate the uptake and impacts of the new under 22s concessionary ferry travel schemes and consider potential enhancements.
We will continue work on the Community Needs Assessments for all Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) and Northern Isles Ferry Services (NIFS) routes to establish communities’ transport connectivity needs, identify transport dependencies, and propose options to address any under or over provision of existing services. Communities also feed into CalMac through the Ferries Community Board, who represent communities and businesses across the network.
Through CalMac's Enhancement and Change Plan, we will review the current deck space reservation pilot for Mull, Coll and Tiree and, if this has delivered the intended benefit, engage with other communities on potential roll-out opportunities. This should allow greater opportunities for island communities and those who require to travel with a vehicle at shorter notice. The pilot is working well and was extended to Sound of Harris and Sound of Barra routes in the Winter 2025/26 timetable with continuing community engagement. Further meetings of the Working Group will take place in 2026 to monitor and consider improvements to the pilot, including a request for islander prioritisation.
We will maintain our close working with the Department for Transport and Network Rail, progressing the ongoing feasibility work, seeking to identify options to improve accessibility for the Scottish stations selected to receive Access for All funding in rail Control Period 7 (2024-2029). In addition, works to improve accessibility at Dunkeld and Birnam Rail Station commenced in late 2025/26.
We maintain our ambition for a public transport system which is more accessible, available, and affordable. We want to enable people across Scotland to make positive and proactive choices to use public transport. Crucial in realising this ambition will be an integrated public transport system. We will continue to develop options for how we can ensure that fares, services and ticketing are better integrated.
We continue to receive advice from the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board on the development of integrated smart ticketing in Scotland, including national standards to improve integration across modes. The Board delivered several early improvements and published its 2025 annual report. It also submitted the Standards and Technology Advisory Report (STAR) in October 2025, providing the first formal recommendations on smart and integrated ticketing. This year, we will introduce secondary legislation to update ticketing definitions and guidance.
Our Smart and Integrated Ticketing and Payments Delivery Strategy 2024 sets out our road map for delivery of a national integrated ticketing system. A National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board workshop was held in February 2026 to refine the STAR recommendations and support business case development of the national system. The strategy also sets out how we will build on the six regional multi-operator smart ticketing schemes already available across Scotland, taking forward legislation within the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to enhance ticketing schemes, developing best practice guidance for ticketing schemes and setting a national technological standard, as advised by the Board.
To better support public transport integration, we will introduce phased improvements to the Traveline Scotland website and app to include real time bus location information and other features. A number of planned upgrades to service were made over the past year, including accessibility enhancements and more real-time information supporting live vehicle tracking on a map. Iterative improvements include the introduction of a ‘next generation’ data management system, supporting journey planning and disruption management systems, and alighting alerts to notify passengers that their stop is approaching.
We have launched a pilot scheme for a £2 bus fare cap, backed by £10 million. The pilot initiative aims to make bus travel more affordable, improve access for low-income communities, and support sustainable travel for people within the pilot areas. ZetTrans (Shetland) and HITRANS (Highland, Moray, Argyll & Bute, Orkney, and the Western Isles) areas were selected for the pilot, which was launched on a phased basis in January 2026 in the ZetTrans region before being rolled out on a phased basis across the HITRANS region in February and March.
We continue to provide local authorities with resources for the support of community transport services through the local government finance settlement. This funding is not ring-fenced and it is for individual local authorities to allocate funding as they see fit across their range of programmes taking into account local need and circumstances. Funding is also provided on an annual basis to the Community Transport Association Scotland to provide support for community transport groups that already exist, renew those that have lapsed and support the formation of others where there are currently none.
From 1 April 2026, companions of blind National Entitlement Cardholders (NEC + 1) will be able to travel free on rail services across Scotland. This has been made permanent following a positive evaluation by Transport Scotland on the pilot that ran from April 2025. Cardholders and a companion can now travel free on bus, ferry and rail services across Scotland, making public transport more affordable and accessible.
Through the People and Place programme, we will support Transport to Employment and Transport to Health interventions, as part of a wider transport policy package of the latest Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan (2026 to 2031). This package includes the continuation of the concessionary travel schemes and a new £19 million Transport to Employment offer.