Scotland to restore peak fares after year’s trial

Peak fares will be reinstated on ScotRail services from September 30, after ministers announced that passenger numbers had not increased enough to make an all-day off-peak trial permanent.

Commuters on Scotland’s publicly operated national network have been able to travel with off-peak tickets at peak times since October 2023, when an initial six-month trial began. This was then extended twice for two three-month periods.

Now a Transport Scotland report has concluded that demand for rail travel was 6.8% higher than it would have been without the trial - representing four million extra rail journeys over nine months, of which two million would previously have been made by private car. Most of the extra journeys were made by existing rail users.