Monday June 29th 2026
ScotRail train at Eskbank Station
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Almost 750,000 additional journeys have been taken by customers with a ticket bought before travelling – during ScotRail’s education phase of the minimum fare introduction.
Scotland’s national train operator is praising passengers for their response to the campaign ahead of the formal introduction of the £10 minimum fare on Wednesday, 1 July.
Since April, when the train operator began explaining how the new system will work, 743,000 more journeys have been bought by customers before they boarded a ScotRail train.
The data suggests at least 36,000 of those journeys would have been taken by people dodging their fare and deliberately avoiding paying.
From the start of July, the minimum fare will apply to customers who get on board without buying a ticket before they travel, where ticket buying facilities were available to do so.
It’s estimated fare evasion costs Scotland’s Railway more than £11million each year, which is money that could otherwise have been reinvested in improving services for customers.
There are many ways to buy tickets including at station ticket offices, from self-service ticket machines, online, and through the ScotRail app. Signage and posters have been in place at stations and on trains, supported by station announcements, radio advertising, and increased social media activity.
For many shorter journeys, the minimum fare will be higher than the standard ticket price. For example, a return between Bishopbriggs and Glasgow Queen Street costs £3, meaning a customer who deliberately travels without a ticket could end up paying significantly more.
Independent analysis of ticketless travel shows that many passengers travelling without a ticket could have bought one before boarding. The station ticket office was open in 74 per cent of cases, while 90 per cent of journeys involved stations with working ticket vending machines.
The change is also expected to help reduce anti-social behaviour on the railway, which is often linked to a small minority of passengers travelling without a ticket.
There are several circumstances where the minimum fare will not apply, including but not limited to:
– Some ticket offers such as Kids for a Quid.
– Certain concession tickets.
– Where stations do not have retail facilities.
– Where customers have disabilities preventing them from using ticket machines or accessing booking offices.
Revenue protection has been strengthened since ScotRail returned to public ownership in 2022, including introducing dedicated Revenue Protection Officers and improving tools for frontline staff.
ScotRail’s Revenue Protection team recovers around £2million a year that would otherwise be lost and as a result, ticketless travel has reduced from 8.8 per cent in April 2022 to its current level of 2.63 per cent.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail Customer Operations Director, said:
“We want to say thank you to customers who have learned from our education campaign prior to the minimum fare being introduced on July 1.
“We know most people are honest and pay the correct fare but the minority who don’t are costing the railway millions of pounds each year.
“There are lots of different ways customers can pay for their ticket before they start their journey, and ScotRail staff will continue to help people understand how to do this.
“The success of our new policy will not be measured by the number of minimum fares we hand out, but by the amount of people who buy a ticket before getting on board a train.
“The education campaign, which has resulted in almost three quarters of a million more journeys being bought before customers get on board, has been a resounding success and we look forward to more and more people doing the right thing and buying before they board.”
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