Yesterday, Graham Simpson led the Scottish Conservatives in a winning vote that called on the Scottish Government to reverse its plan to reintroduce peak fares on ScotRail. Mr Simpson’s motion called on the SNP Government to change its plans to end the off-peak all-day fares trial on 27th September.
A majority of MSPs backed the motion and told the SNP Government to think again. This was a humiliating double defeat for the Scottish Government who also lost a vote over their plans to scrap universal free school meals for P6 and P7 pupils.
Scottish Conservative shadow transport minister Graham Simpson MSP said: “Reinstating peak fares at a time when many are battling with a global cost-of-living crisis and the service is becoming increasingly unreliable demonstrates an appalling brass neck from this SNP Government.
“If we expect people to pay for a service, we must make that service reliable – and it hasn’t been.
“Between April and August this year, almost 6,000 trains have been cancelled and over a quarter of a million pounds has been paid out in compensation.
“The only reason the SNP are hiking these fares is to plug the black hole in Scotland’s finances caused by 17 years of their financial mismanagement.
“If they are serious about getting more people out of their cars and onto public transport, the SNP must ditch this backwards decision to reinstate peak fares.”
