RAIL fares across Scotland will rise from today, with Scotland’s transport minister claiming performance on the trains network during 2016 “was simply not good enough”.

The hike will see the cost of annual and monthly season tickets between Glasgow and Edinburgh go up by £72 and £82.80 in 2017. Another example cited by government agency Transport Scotland is a £1.50 rise in the cost of a monthly ticket between Johnstone in Renfrewshire and Glasgow, while an annual pass on the same route will increase by £16.

With a free week’s travel being offered later this year the Government has insisted regular passengers will be better off than had the fare’s been frozen, with over £95 saved on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route.

Scottish Labour, which has called for a freeze on all rail fares, has said the targeted reductions were a direct result of its pressure on ministers and the industry.

Train fares across the UK will go up by an average of 2.3 per cent from today.

In Scotland fares are kept below certain thresholds by regulating the maximum permitted annual increase for selected fares, including ‘Anytime’ and season tickets, to the level of the Retail Price Index (RPI) for regulated peak fares and one per cent below RPI for regulated Off-Peak fares. July’s RPI inflation rate was 1.9 per cent.

The rail industry has been under heavy pressure in recent months as Scottish Labour has made it a key weapon to attack the SNP Government, complaining about delays, overcrowding and ticket prices on the network and calling for both the current ScotRail franchise holder, Dutch firm Abellio, to have its contract terminated.

The industry has said it is going through major enhancements with the network being electrified and rolling stock and stations improved.

Transport minister Humza Yousaf said 2016 had been “a challenging year for the rail industry with delays and disruption impacting on commuters’ day to day rail travel”.

He added: “The Scottish Government knew this was simply not good enough, so took steps to ensure Scotrail addressed this by introducing a 249-point performance improvement plan which we are now monitoring closely. We are confident ScotRail can and will deliver the kind of services passengers deserve.

“We want to reward passengers for their continued custom and patience while we deliver our extensive programme of improvements.”

He said ScotRail would unveil a set of fare promotions throughout the year for weekly season ticket holders “as well as less frequent rail travellers to ensure more customers benefit from our investment in Scotland’s railways”.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Alex Rowley said: “Labour called for a fare freeze for 2017. Unlike the SNP’s plan, this would benefit every single passenger.

“After all the delays and disruption people have had to put up with on the railways, no passenger should face a fare hike when they return to work this week.

“The bottom line is that fares will still rise to record levels this year for the vast majority of passengers. It is insulting to ask passengers to pay a penny more for the shocking ScotRail service they have been receiving.”