Peak fares will be abolished on ScotRail in September, after a previous trial ended last September on the grounds that it had not attracted enough extra passengers to balance the books.

At the time, Transport secretary Fiona Hyslop said: ‘The pilot primarily benefited existing train passengers and those with medium to higher incomes. Although passenger levels increased to a maximum of around 6.8 per cent, it would require a 10 per cent increase in passenger numbers for the policy to be self-financing.’

But peak fares will now be scrapped permanently.

First Minister John Swinney told MSPs: ‘Last year, in the face of severe budget pressures, we took the difficult decision to end the peak fares pilot on our railways.

‘But now, given the work we have done to get Scotland’s finances in a stronger position, and hearing also the calls from commuters, from climate activists and from the business community, I can confirm that, from 1 September this year, peak rail fares in Scotland will be scrapped for good.

‘A decision that will put more money in people's pockets and mean less CO2 is pumped into our skies.’

The Scottish Greens had criticised the decision to end the pilot last year, and the party has welcomed the Scottish Government’s change of heart.

Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: ‘Earlier this year, they said they wouldn’t do it. They even voted against Green calls to do it. We’ve finally got there.’

The decision has also been applauded by rail unions. ASLEF’s Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: ‘Ending peak-time fares removes a tax on people commuting to work, making rail travel genuinely affordable for many more people across Scotland,’ while the RMT described the decision as ‘right’.

The campaigning group Transform Scotland said it had been ‘perverse for rail passengers to be penalised’ with peak fares.

Mr Swinney has also reversed the policy of banning the visible carriage of alcohol on ScotRail trains. The ban was introduced in November 2020, and it meant that alcohol had to be kept out of sight in a bag and not consumed on railway property, because of anti-social behaviour which had included intoxicated passengers ignoring Covid rules about ‘physical distancing’.

The First Minister said the ‘counterproductive and ineffective’ ban would be lifted and replaced by ‘new regulations that focus restrictions more effectively on particular times and locations’.

Work is under way on drafting a ‘behaviour code’, which could include the withdrawal of concessionary travel passes as a deterrent.

Do you have a comment on this story? Please click here  to send an email to Platform at Railnews.

Moderated comments will be published on this site, and may also be used in the next print edition.