Executive summary
Background
The National Transport Strategy (NTS2) sets out our vision for transport in Scotland over the next 20 years:
We will have a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system, helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.
The Strategy sets out our commitment to ensuring that everyone in Scotland will share in the benefits of a modern and accessible transport system. We recognise that in order to realise these ambitions our transport system must provide fair access to the services we need; be easy for all to use; and be affordable for all.
As part of our considerations on how we can deliver this commitment, and in response to the increasing affordability challenges faced by young people when using transport, this review has been commissioned to identify and explore options for extending concessionary travel across all public transport modes to those under the age of 26.
Policy Context
NTS2 highlights that Transport is an enabler of poverty through the impacts it can have on income and household expenditure. We also know that public transport is a necessity to those on low incomes, yet, in many areas of high social deprivation, public transport availability can be limited or non-existent. Furthermore, the Strategy sets out that the combined challenges on the affordability and availability can be more acute for young people.
During the review process the Scottish Government made a commitment to introduce free bus travel to those under the age of 19, which is considered as the baseline within this report. It has since been extended to those under the age of 22, and commenced from 31 January 2022. Care should be taken in interpreting the results of the report in this context.
Since the original date of commission, the impacts of COVID-19 on young people have been considerable and for some nothing short of devastating. While the true impacts of the pandemic will not become clear for many years, Scottish Government research into COVID-19 and equality in Scotland found that the pandemic is adversely impacting young people’s income and ability to afford housing and other essentials, such as public transport, and concluded that without significant intervention, a long COVID-19 recovery risks worsening economic generational inequality.
In addition, COVID-19 has led to unprecedented falls in demand for public transport. 50% of respondents to the COVID-19 public attitudes survey indicated they will avoid public transport and use their car or other vehicle more than before. The future demand for public transport remains uncertain.
It is understood that in order to ensure our transport system plays its part in delivering a fully inclusive society, policy interventions are need to address both the challenges of affordability and availability of transport. Any policy interventions will require additional budget in order to be implemented, at a time when there are significant pressures on budgets and exacerbated financial constraints.
In light of the unprecedented financial and capacity impacts of COVID-19 on the transport sector, and the continued uncertainty regarding the future of the pandemic on society, further work will be required to examine the future of public transport to fully assess the sustainability of any policy initiatives.
Summary of Key Findings
The review looks at existing initiatives and considers what is working well, what is not working well and how the current offerings benefits those travelling across the transport network. Key findings from this analysis identified 4 key challenges faced by young people and families, with children, living in poverty:
- Concessionary fares schemes only provide value where they are matched with available services: through good and affordable public transport, people can gain access to jobs, education, and training, contributing to raising household income and preventing people from experiencing poverty. However, they also concluded that poor access to transport can also lock people into poverty by limiting access to these opportunities to increase income.
- Concessionary fares schemes are not necessarily available to everyone who experiences cost as a barrier to transport: there are loopholes in the current concessionary travel schemes. Those on low incomes and those with regular working patterns may be unable to benefit from existing discounted travel, such as discounted fares for young people only being available during off-peak times and therefore of no use for young people travelling to work or college. This can result in young people facing particularly high costs if they need to change between transport operators during their journeys.
In addition, the findings show that while extending entitlement to free travel would remove the barrier of cost to low income families and young people, the findings showed that barrier of availability of transport services would still limit access and use for low income families and young people.
- Lack of, and limited, transport services can result in increasing journey costs: A large number of people across Scotland need to take multiple buses (operated by multiple operators) to make one journey. This means purchasing multiple tickets, and therefore substantially increasing the cost of the journey.
A particular issue for rural areas is the lack of public transport, which acts as a barrier for young people accessing education, training and employment. Longer commutes combined with more expensive fuel typically adds £30 to £40 per week to costs when compared to rural England. - Current understanding on the impacts of COVID-19 show that the challenges on the affordability and availability of public transport are being exacerbated for our young people, and the long term implications of the pandemic for the sector and our young people is still unknown: affordability, availability and connectivity challenges in a post COVID-19 should not be downplayed, given the impact on the job market is likely to require job seekers to travel considerable distances for new opportunities. A more developed understanding of the impacts of the pandemic should enable future policy interventions which are considering concessionary fares to ensure they do not deepen existing inequalities or negatively affect the economy as it recovers.
The options appraisal that was undertaken in this review reinforced the points made above. This Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) was based on the Policy Appraisal Framework (PAF) within the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG), adopted as an alternative to cost-benefit analysis given the lack of information on monetary values at present. The key objectives of affordability, availability, and accessibility of public transport services for young people were identified from the evidence and data gathered for the review, and a range of options across different modes and different targeting were examined.
The key finding of the appraisal is that, whilst some options offer better value for money than others, it is difficult to recommend any intervention in value-for-money terms, as all options do not really address the core issues of both availability and affordability. The narrow options around SG benefits will benefit relatively few people, and are likely to have implementation difficulties to the extent that the resource cost of putting them in place is detrimental.
The exception to this is the provision of active travel benefits to those on lower incomes, young parents or who could otherwise not afford cycles. Whilst the numbers benefiting have an impact on the overall reach of the scheme the relative ease of implementation suggests that this is an area was worth exploring further. Further analysis suggested that targeting active travel measures at younger age groups (e.g. free cycle pilots for children) would offer the greatest value for money.
Extending bus travel to all U26s scores marginally negatively, primarily due to costs. The impact of extending concessionary bus to those under 22 years-old was not considered as part of the initial analysis undertaken. However, work undertaken out with the scope of this review suggested that a more limited extension would score more favourably as the lower cost of providing concessions to those under 22 would shift the balance of cost and numbers reached by the scheme in a positive direction.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Analysis of the current concessionary fares schemes shows that they are proven to support a reduction in some of the inequality challenges faced by certain groups of our society, and that by widening access to this support they could play a key role in delivering the fully inclusive society we want. However, addressing the issues of affordability of public transport solely and in isolation from the issues of availability and connectivity, as well as future demand and the needs of certain groups in our society, will not provide the outcomes necessary to realise our ambitions.
The current concessionary fares schemes for young people is undergoing a transformation with the introduction of the under 22s free bus concessions, and the work being carried out to deliver this commitment provides useful analytical data on the uptake and usage of fare free public transport; particularly over the coming year, following an uncertain period for public transport.
Based on the evidence obtained and research carried out for this review, it is clear that there is a growing need for further support for young people, both in transport and more broadly. There is obvious merit in giving further consideration to whether the current concessionary fare offerings within Scotland best meet the needs of Scotland’s young people, and whether more could be done to ensure public transport does not act as a barrier in ensuring young people are able to access education, work, training, and other opportunities across the country.
The options appraisal highlighted three possible interventions which scored well. The three could broadly be categorised as universal, targeted, and novel:
- The first, to offer universal free travel across all modes, to all young people under the age of 26, has obvious implementation challenges, not least with regards to affordability in today’s financial climate.
- The second, to offer free travel on all modes to young parents (under 26), offers a more targeted intervention, however with no similar precedent in place for such offerings and delivery mechanisms.
- The third option, to provide access to a bicycle for all U26s, through either grant funding of appropriate cycle hire, or free cycle hire, aligns with the health and wellbeing objectives of Scottish Government, as well as ensuring young people are able to benefit from the investments in active travel infrastructure made in recent years. Again there were significant deliverability factors. However the First 100 days free bike commitment was subsequently made as part of manifesto commitments, where a number of pilots are currently working well, with 988 bikes issued and ambitious plans to deliver considerably more.
It is therefore recommended that the findings from this review be used to inform considerations on possible options for extending concessionary travel as part of the Fair Fares Review. It is also recommended that evidence and data from the under 22s free bus scheme be used to inform the take up and demand for fare-free public transport for young people.
These considerations should be supported, and further informed, by identifying the wider policy actions required to support the delivery of NTS2, as well as wider Scottish Government ambitions and those set out in the NTS2 Delivery Plan.