Train tickets to rise by 6 per cent

Published on Friday 21 November 2008 10:44

Train passengers in Scotland will face a 6% rise in the cost of most tickets from January, it was announced today.

First ScotRail said "significant cost pressures" over the year had led to the increase in fares.

But the operator said it has frozen its cheapest advance fares on more than 80 journeys across Scotland.

The 6% rise does not apply on the local network in the west of Scotland, although these fares will go up by 4%.

This is because fares in the region were previously set by Strathclyde Partnership For Transport and increased in May.

The rise applies to both unregulated fares – those set at the train operator's discretion – and regulated fares, which are fixed in agreement with Transport Scotland.

First ScotRail's commercial director Peter Williams, said: "Like other businesses, we have seen costs increase. We believe we have struck the right balance between encouraging customers to travel when there is capacity on less busy services – and the price for travel on busier services where space is at a premium."