ScotRail passengers to be charged £10 minimum fare if they travel without a ticket
Move to curb fare dodging on short journeys to be introduced in July
ScotRail is to introduce a minimum £10 fare for passengers who travel without a ticket.
The announcement confirms The Scotsman’s exclusive story on the move.
The charge will be implemented in July in an attempt to stop people claiming shorter journeys than they travelled. It will follow a “period of education” from April 1.
The Scottish Government-owned operator said examples included passengers who travelled without a £3 return ticket from Bishopbriggs to Glasgow Queen Street being charged £10 for their journey.
It is aimed at cutting fare dodging, which costs ScotRail more than £11 million a year, along with anti-social behaviour caused by people who travel without tickets.
The minimum fare would not apply if the journey costs more than £10, or if a station ticket office is closed or it has no working ticket vending machine.
Passengers with national entitlement cards, such as for free bus passes, and those with registered disabilities that prevent them from using ticket machines, would be exempt.
People only able to pay for tickets with cash will have to get a “promise to pay” ticket from ticket machines at stations which have them.
ScotRail revenue protection staff are to target routes with short journeys. They generate some around £2m a year in otherwise lost revenue.
The company said the proportion of passengers travelling without tickets had fallen from 8.8 per cent to 3.7 per cent since the operator was nationalised by the Scottish Government four years ago.
Unlike most English train operators, ScotRail passengers have not previously faced penalties for not buying a ticket before travelling.
An industry source has said minimum fares were a “slightly softer approach” than the £100 penalty fares which can be imposed south of the Border.
They said: “This is set at the right level for the Scottish network.”
ScotRail customer operations director Phil Campbell said: “The introduction of a minimum fare will target the small number of customers who don’t buy a ticket before they travel, ensuring fairness for honest, fare-paying ScotRail passengers.
“With more staff in place across the network, increased checks at stations and the use of enhanced data analysis, we are reducing instances of ticket fraud year-on-year.”
The official passenger watchdog urged caution over introduction of the new policy.
Alex Campbell, policy and insight director at Transport Focus, said: “Passengers recognise that fare evasion is a problem that the railway should address.”
However, he added: “Passengers also make honest mistakes that should not be confused with fare evasion.
“The discretion element of the policy should err on the side of passengers when genuine mistakes are made.”
Scottish Conservatives transport spokesperson Sue Webber said: “Hard-pressed commuters will hope they won’t be hit in the pocket because a small minority of people want to dodge fares.
“Everyone must be pay the right fare for their journey, but ministers must also clarify how this policy will be enforced in practice by SNP-run ScotRail, especially at smaller stations.”
Her Scottish Labour counterpart Daniel Johnson said: “These rip-off changes will hit honest passengers as well as fare-dodgers.
“It is not right that the SNP is forcing everyone to pay the price for a rule-breaking minority.
“We need a system that holds people trying to dodge fares accountable without punishing others.”
The minimum fares move comes a week after First Minister John Swinney announced ScotRail ticket prices would be frozen for a year from April.
The operator’s higher weekday peak fares were abolished last September, saving passengers up to almost 50 per cent such as on journeys between Edinburgh and Glasgow.