The Friends of the Far North Line
Cairdean Na Loine Tuath
the campaign group for rail north of
Inverness - lobbying for improved services for the local user, tourist and freight
operator
This letter was published in The Herald on 29 August in response to the news that the Scottish Government is ending the suspension of peak rail fares from 27 September. Although it is easy to understand ScotRail's view that the money spent could be better used in other ways to encourage modal shift, it was disheartening to hear that "ministers said the money would be better spent on tackling climate change and child poverty."
There is a basic injustice in charging people double for travelling at a time not of their choosing. To some degree it is understandable that the operator wishes to recoup the cost of needing more trains to cover peak services, and it is also common practice to try and manipulate travel decisions by charging more, or less, for certain services - airlines do it all the time. However, peak travel is certainly not optional for those that do it, and forcing them to pay more does not encourage rail use and it does no good to rail's public image.
My late father-in-law lived in Malaysia. When visiting, I was often struck by the way that the people discussed transport. Their government has tried to tackle the problems with the transport network and, when they do, they talk about the "first and last mile". Getting to public transportation and getting to your destination is often hobbled by that first and last mile and, boy, is that true in Scotland.
Last week, the Scottish Government ended its peak time rail fare experiment ("Dismay as peak rail fares return", The Herald, August 21). On the one hand, it had failed to meet the success criteria: it wanted a 10% increase, uptake was only 6.8%.
Twenty-five years ago, I studied a unit called The Economics of Transport. Economists were stressing the need for an integrated transport policy which would allow for buses to tessellate with rail; for effective park and ride schemes, for congestion zones, a quarter of a century ago. In essence, solutions to the first and last mile.
What we got was further fragmentation, further privatisation, a relentless march of higher prices and worse services. The Scottish Government has taken ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper back under its wing and is making tentative toddles towards sorting things. But the Government will continue to fail to meet its climate targets if it does not take long-term choices, invest in them and leave them to play out over the long term.
Transport infrastructure investment, the multiplier effect of jobs in manufacturing, staffing and providing these systems is inherently good for an economy.
But it is not a quick fix. And the Scottish Government is not able to do long-term planning because of the short-termism imposed by Westminster: no borrowing powers on international money markets, no guarantee of stability in the block grant, a requirement to balance the budget annually.
Sartre said "hell is other people". In order to make sharing a confined compartment with those other people, public transport must be cheaper, more reliable, more frequent and less attractive than a hermetically sealed box of your own company.
We're not there yet and this week we moved further away.