IT IS far easier to give than to take away, something which applies to all goods and services, as new ScotRail operators, the Dutch company Abellio swiftly discovered when they scrapped the popular Club 55 scheme, the somewhat arbitrary asrrangement which gave people over that age £19 return tickets to anywhere in the country.

Stung by the initial criticism, they have come up with a new discount club aimed at those over the age of 50, winning over a small segment of a new demographic, but still angering those who cherished the simplicity of the former scheme, which only required proof of age such as a driving licence.

The new scheme requires registration and in subsequent years will involve an annual membership fee of £15, while after an initial offer of a one-off £10 flat fare it will then become simply a 20% discount club for advance booking. Anyone simply walking up on the day will receive only a 10% discount.

It may be that the Dutch operators stumbled into our rather odd rail system unacquainted with our myriad ticket prices and age-based incentives. They know now.

We already have the generous Government system whereby anyone over the age of 60 — regardless of their wealth or work status — gets a free bus pass, which some see as a universal benefit too far but which undoubtedly helps combat social isolation in the elderly.

When the previous ScotRail franchise started Club 55 it cannot have been about social concern. Those in work in their late 50s are what we used to call baby boomers, the ones who left university without debt and who went on to benefit from full employment and the property boom.

Their parents, the real OAPs, needed a bit of help, and their children were struggling a bit, but, hey, who doesn’t like a deal for those in their late 50s who want to travel round a bit?

The ire might have been reserved for the bigger questions around rail franchising and whether the bid for ScotRail might have been delayed to allow a public or not-for-profit bid but instead we now have Abellio, who have already decided to slash Sunday services and tinker with our beloved Club 55.

In fact there are much bigger pricing scandals than this one, however popular that scheme was. Fares from Abereen, Inverness and Dundee into our Central Belt remain eye-watering. It would be instructive to calculate equivalent distance fares in the Netherlands.

And while students and our more senior citizens can get good deals on fares, where does that leave others such as the unemployed or low paid? The new Club 50 will be welcomed by those with lucky birth dates who can afford to take advantage, but make little difference to those who cannot afford rail travel, the unlucky inbetweeners.