A SCHEME which cut rail fares for travellers at peak times could return in the future, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop has suggested.
She insisted the Scottish Government simply cannot afford to continue with the subsidised tickets at present.
The Government has spent £40 million on the year-long scheme, which sees all travellers pay off-peak charges on ScotRail services regardless of the time they travel.
Ministers came under fire after it was announced on Tuesday that the trial will come to an end on September 27 – with a report saying it had only achieved a “limited increase” in rail passenger numbers and did not result in a “significant modal shift” away from people using cars.
On Wednesday, however, Hyslop suggested it could return at some point in the future – if finances permit.
She said she is “prepared to go back to this” as she conceded it will “take years” to shift commuters from cars to public transport.
However the Transport Secretary told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “At this present time we cannot afford the level of public investment, subsidy, call it what you will, to put into the sector at this time.”
She said ministers had twice extended the trial, which was initially only due to run for six months, in a bid to give it the “best chance of success”.
She added: “If we are using public funding and public subsidy to cut prices, we need to demonstrate it is having the impact that the pilot was meant to achieve, which was to try to shift more people to rail, to choose to use rail, not their car.
“Now that hasn’t shown evidence to the level that would justify that level of investment and we are living in tough financial times.”
With the Scottish Government seeking to encourage more people to use public transport instead of their cars as part of efforts to tackle climate change, Hyslop said there will need to be “big measures in the future to try to make sure that people are choosing to use public transport”, but she also stressed ministers need to “make sure we use public funding in the best way”.
She added: “With the UK Government’s austerity as it is just now and continuing, it is very difficult to justify.”
She accepted the decision to end the pilot will be “disappointing” for rail travellers, but added: “We did say back in May when we extended it that we needed people to use the rail, to demonstrate in numbers, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to continue. Unfortunately we are not able to continue.
“If we are going to be able to use public investment to tackle climate change, there are measures that might have more impact than this.”
With ScotRail services having been reduced by a temporary timetable, brought in to cope with drivers refusing to work overtime, Hyslop said the publicly-owned rail operator is training more staff to deal with the situation in the long term.
She said: “Drivers can choose under their own contract whether they work overtime or rest days.
“We have already employed 250 more people since public ownership of ScotRail, and indeed there is another 160 drivers currently being trained.
“That in the future will stand us in good stead.”
She stressed the desire to have “stability in our system”, but also made clear it “takes quite some time” to train new train drivers.
However, she said: “I would hope in the future we would not have to have suspended timetables, that we would be able to rely on the number of drivers that have been recruited.”
