The scope of the Fair Fares Review and our approach

The Review has considered both the cost and availability of public transport services and the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares that that supports the future long term viability of our public transport system.

It has considered the costs of providing public transport services by operators, the costs of supporting public transport services to government, and the costs of accessing public transport services incurred by passengers.

The availability element of the Review`s work includes consideration of options to improve integration of public transport services and fares. Importantly it does not include a review of infrastructure provision as The second Strategic Transport Projects Review sets out the Government’s investment priorities for the strategic transport network.

Options have been considered under the Review for implementation from 2024/25 and beyond.

Transport Scotland has undertaken focused engagement with a range of stakeholders in identifying and developing options for change as part of the Review. This includes transport operators, delivery partners such as Regional Transport Partnerships, passenger and advocacy groups including the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) and the Poverty Alliance, and campaigning groups such as Transform Scotland.

As part of the engagement with the Poverty Alliance a series of workshops were held with individuals with lived experience of poverty from communities across Scotland to explore the impacts that issues related to access to public transport have on their lives and to identify recommendations that the Scottish Government should consider as part of the Review.

We have gathered information on the totality of government funding for public transport, disaggregated by individual modes of transport, as well as monitoring and assessing the latest data on public transport patronage, taking particular cognisance of any changes that have become embedded since the onset of the pandemic.

We have also gathered and assessed evidence on public transport policy interventions adopted in other parts of the United Kingdom and the rest of the world that have recently been introduced either to drive modal shift from car to public transport or in response to inflationary pressures facing operators and passengers. Additional evidence has been compiled in relation to specific cities or regions in other parts of the United Kingdom or the rest of the world that stakeholders have highlighted as demonstrating best practice in relation to the funding, delivery, provision and integration of public transport services.

The final element of the Review relates to work that has been undertaken to identify and develop potential Pathfinder Pilot schemes that take action on the cost and availability of public transport services, specifically by meeting a number of the following objectives:

• Lower the cost of transport on a targeted basis for specific lower income groups.
• Address rail fares anomalies.
• Test alternative fares structures that reflect the changed patterns in public transport usage since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Address ferry fares anomalies and make more efficient use of vehicle deck capacity on the busiest routes at peak times.
• Enable multi-modal journeys to be made more seamlessly between different modes / operators without financial penalty to the passenger.
• Simplify and cap single journey fares across modes.
• Demonstrate a more targeted approach to concessionary travel schemes.
• Reduce the cost to operators of providing public transport services and where such reductions in costs can be repurposed to either the taxpayer and / or passenger.
• Address gaps in the existing public transport network that inhibit communities` access to jobs, education, public services, retail and social and leisure opportunities.

The first such pilot scheme to be implemented is the pilot project to provide all day off-peak rail fares from ScotRail services for a temporary period from October 2023 for six months, since extended until June 2024. The emerging findings from this pilot have helped inform the recommendations of the Review.

A long list of potential policy options was developed, either drawn from pre-existing commitments made by Ministers, options that Ministers have requested are assessed, are in response to representations from stakeholders, or otherwise informed by the Initial Appraisal of the Problems, Opportunities, Issues and Constraints in relation to the costs and availability of public transport.

An initial appraisal was undertaken whereby options were assessed under an overarching multi-criteria analysis framework for decision making against National Transport Strategy (NTS) priorities and the First Minister Policy Prospectus priorities for public transport (more available, affordable and accessible). A further assessment of options was then undertaken to provide a more detailed assessment of the feasibility of options, timescales to implement, and to identify the risks and sensitivities of options. 

The assessment found that there were a number of policy options deemed unsuitable for progression as they would not deliver the strategic objectives in relation to the long term financial sustainability of concessionary travel schemes, the viability of wider support for public transport and consequently, would not help advance the availability, accessibility and affordability of the public transport system in Scotland. Annex A provides a summary of those options not progressed.