Transport Scotland - Scrapping of peak rail fares information: FOI release

Information requested

1. Confirmation of whether or not the amount of money that was required to deliver the permanent scrapping of peak rail fares came from an existing pot of money that was already in Transport Scotland’s budget.

If it was, please reveal

(i) which pot of money (name of fund and for which policy)
(ii) how much was taken from that pot (In other words, I’m directly asking what was the money intended to be spent on before it was allocated to the scrapping of peak rail fares)

If it wasn’t, then please reveal

(i) which fund did the money come
(ii) which other Scottish Government department did it come from
(In other words, where it was reallocated from, please confirm if it came from another government department and which one)

2. A copy of the latest assessment of the scrapping of peak rail fares policy that has been prepared for the Cabinet Secretary for Transport.

I’m referring to any document that would inform the Cabinet Secretary about how well the policy is working, customer satisfaction, cost projections or ScotRail feedback.

Response

For part 1 of your request

The project to remove peak fares on ScotRail services will undeniably result in a change in revenue to ScotRail and thus a change in the level of subsidy required to operate the rail system.

The initial cost estimates are for the first year of implementation, based on the experience of the pilot to remove peak fares on a temporary basis, which was delivered in between 2023 and 2024.

There remains significant uncertainty over the level of costs associated with the project – see answer to point 2 below and the Outline Business Case for the project, which was published on Transport Scotland’s website: ScotRail Peak Fares Permanent Removal Outline Business Case. While the business case does not fall in the scope of your request, you might find the information included in it, helpful.

Considering that the decision to permanently remove peak fares was taken by the Cabinet in April 2025, after the budget for the year 2025-26 had already been agreed and the full cost of removing peak fares for the period starting September 2025 and ending March 2026 is not yet known, we are not in a position to confirm the actual cost of this initiative.

However an estimated cost related to the removal of peak fares has been accommodated in Scottish Government’s financial planning, and appropriate budget cover will be transferred at the in-year budget revisions.

ScotRail budgets are set on an annual basis, as part of the Scottish Government’s budget process. From 2026-27 onwards the budget will be calculated with no peak fares as the default.

Whilst we aim to provide information whenever possible, for the reasons stated above, the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

As such, we hereby provide you with a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

For part 2 of your request

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

As such, I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

It might be helpful for you to note that it is too early to draw any meaningful conclusions at this stage as patronage and revenue are sensitive to very minor changes.

Work is underway to build upon the evaluation of the pilot to remove peak fares delivered between 2023 and 2024, and to put in place a robust analytical process to evaluate the permanent removal of peak fares. It will take some time to be able to meaningfully analyse the impact of removing peak fares.

However we anticipate that we will be able to share emerging findings after the policy has been in place for 6 months, with further reporting towards the end of 2026.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.