Cutting fares and emissions
Scotland deserves world-class, affordable public transport that everyone can enjoy.
Investing in public transport is a win-win: putting money back in people’s pockets, whilst driving down climate change emissions.
The Scottish Greens are proud to have delivered free bus travel for all young people in Scotland, saving families money and opening up new opportunities. We abolished peak fares, slashing commuter costs and getting people back onto publicly owned railways. And we ensured that young people growing up on our islands can travel by ferry between islands for free.
But there is so much more to do. Every community should be able to choose public transport over private cars. Our services should be run in the public interest, not for private profit. And because we’re serious about tackling our climate emissions, they have to be more affordable.
We will slash the cost of public transport in Scotland, expanding free bus travel to everyone resident in Scotland and abolishing first class rail tickets on ScotRail. We will introduce Scotland’s first integrated ticketing system, making it easier to join up journeys across ferries, trains, buses and trams, and we’ll make sure island residents get priority on their lifeline ferry routes.
And we will run more services for people, not for private profit: too many private companies have had it easy for too long, hiking fares and slashing routes. We will bring more of Scotland’s buses back under public control, and ramp up support for community run services.
Delivering accessible, affordable public transport for all is central to tackling both the climate emergency and the cost of living crisis – and it will be a top priority for Scottish Greens in Holyrood.
- Expand free bus travel to everyone resident in Scotland. In the transition period to free fares for all, we would:
- Immediately expand free bus travel to all residents under 30;
- Introduce a £2 bus fare cap across all services in the transition to free fares for all;
- Ensure current national concessionary travel schemes apply to both Glasgow Subway and Edinburgh Trams.
- Bring more of Scotland’s buses back under local control, simplifying the rules for local councils, empowering communities to be better involved in route planning, and providing proper financial help. We will support this by giving the public the chance to invest in their local bus services through the issuing of Scottish Bus Bonds.
- Increase financial support for community-designed and community-owned bus services, ensuring all of Scotland can redesign local transport services in the public interest.
- Abolish first class rail on all ScotRail services. Too many commuters are forced into crowded trains whilst 98% of seats in luxury carriages sit empty. Carriages should be converted into standard class seats, with additional provision made for bikes, wheelchairs and buggies.
- Introduce Scotland’s first integrated ticketing system – ScotCard – setting zonal pricing with daily caps for all public transport journeys instead of disjointed, expensive multi-modal journeys.
- Introduce a national Scottish Rail Card, providing discounts for everyone who is ineligible for the existing railcard schemes, modelled on the current Network Rail card in the South East of England.
- Expand rail and sail tickets across Scotland, providing cheaper, combined tickets for rail, bus and ferry journeys to our islands.
- Introduce a price cap on tickets for the publicly owned Caledonian Sleeper, expanding this to other cross-border providers where possible.
- Develop a scheme to provide a designated allocation of tickets for island residents on each ferry route, ensuring islanders can travel at short notice especially during the peak summer months.
- Improve passenger and worker safety on our public transport network, through deploying transport safety officers on key routes, resisting cuts to staffing on our trains and in our stations, and reviewing existing legislation to ensure all workers are adequately protected from assault.
