Rail fares increase level confirmed
By Bill Heaney
Transport Scotland has today confirmed the fares increase it will put in place for 2025.
The level of increase from April for all ScotRail fares is 3.8 per cent.
The current twenty percent discount on season tickets will continue until September 2025 as planned.
Flexipass will continue to offer 12 single (6 return) journeys. The availability of Flexipass has recently been expanded to include the following stations: Exhibition Centre (Glasgow), Anderston, Motherwell, High Street (Glasgow), Charing Cross (Glasgow), Perth, Stirling, and Bathgate.
Minister Fiona Hyslop, LibDem Dan O’Malley and Labour’s Claire Baker.
Ministers have agreed these fares after lengthy consideration to ensure rail services are sustainable in the longer term and that budgets align with the overall funding available.
Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop said: “From 1 April 2025, all ScotRail fares will increase by 3.8%. We know that any increase is unwelcome for passengers, therefore we have kept the rise as low as possible to maintain the attractiveness and affordability of rail as a travel option.
“We continue to look at ways to encourage greater rail use and that is why we are continuing our 20 per cent discounts on season tickets until September 2025 as planned and expanding the availability of flexipass.
“ScotRail also continue to develop fares initiatives which can help attract more passengers, while offering savings and added value to existing rail users.”
Commenting on news that ScotRail fares are set to increase by 3.8 per cent in April Scottish Labour Transport spokesperson Claire Baker said: “This fare hike will hammer rail passengers and consign ScotRail to a spiral of decline.
“The SNP should be making rail more affordable but instead it has hit passengers with painful fare hikes time and time again.
Responding to the news that ScotRail will hike train fares by 3.8% from April 2025, with the cost of a return ticket between Glasgow and Edinburgh set to rise to £32.60, Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Daniel O’Malley said:
“For almost three years, SNP ministers have been responsible for the trains. In that time, they have clobbered passengers with growing costs and endless disruption. No wonder people feel they’d be better off driving.
“Scotland needs a cheap, reliable and frequent rail service- it’s a win-win for passengers and the planet.
“My party will keep pressing the Scottish Government to explore new lines in areas with poor transport links. We’ve already persuaded them to look a lot more closely at a new train station for Newburgh in Fife.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats would also create new options for two/ three-day-a-week season tickets, keeping costs down for passengers and giving them flexibility.”
- Meanwhile, on the election front, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have today announced that local Councillor and environmental campaigner Sanne Dijkstra-Downie has been selected as the party’s candidate for its key target of Edinburgh Northern at next year’s Scottish Parliament election. The seat has undergone significant boundary changes since the last Scottish Parliament election, with Ballot Box Scotland highlighting that Scottish Liberal Democrats won the area covered by the new seat in the 2022 local elections by 29.3% to the SNP’s 25.0%.