The budget for half price train fares: FOI release

Information requested

 What the Scottish Government/Transport Scotland budget was for the half price train fares offer that ScotRail has just launched. Put another way, was there ever a costs limit put on the offer, and what was it. If not, can I ask why there has been no set sum set aside for this initiative to ensure the costs do not go too high.

I ask because ScotRail says the offer was backed by the Scottish Government.This is the offer, which had been due to take place in January but was postponed due to the rise in Omicron cases, and is the latest ‘Yours to Use’ initiative from the train operator to welcome customers back as it looks to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Response

I can confirm that a specific budget was not allocated to ScotRail Trains Ltd’s half price ticket offer promotion. ScotRail Trains Ltd who were responsible for the promotion undertook revenue modelling to determine the forecast revenue impact. ScotRail Trains Ltd advise that this was calculated using various assumption on forecasted journeys and revenue recovery and that the modelling forecast for the 50% off proposition showed that the promotion would generate additional journeys and incremental revenue and post campaign analysis showed this to be the case. As such the promotion did not have a net cost to ScotRail Trains Ltd.

ScotRail Trains Ltd advise that there was no cap on the number of 50% off tickets that could be sold. The promotion had some restrictions and full terms can be found here: Half price Off-Peak tickets this Spring | ScotRail

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