IT'S now cheaper to drive between Scotland's major cities and park in peak times than it is to take the train. Many off-peak journeys are also cheaper.

January's rail fare rises mean that a journey between Inverness and Aberdeen costs £54.60 (off peak £30.40) whereas to drive and park is just £24. From Glasgow to Edinburgh by train the peak fare is £24.70 compared with the road equivalent of £19.52. From Dundee to Edinburgh, 63 miles by road, it is £13 cheaper by car at peak and £5 less off peak.

Transport unions are warning that swingeing fare rises are forcing Scots to take the car to work instead of trains because.

ScotRail tickets went up by an average of 3.2 per cent last week, with peak tickets rising by 3.6 per cent. But average salaries in Scotland fell by 1.6 per cent last year, when inflation is taken into account.

Union leaders claim many people will stop using some services because it can be cheaper to travel by car and pay for parking..

Car journeys between Scotland's major cities – including Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness and Stirling – are cheaper at peak than rail tickets.

Liz Warren-Corney, Scotland organiser for the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) said: “Trains have a far lower carbon footprint but rail fare rises mean people who have economical cars and can make it work with parking will do that, instead of taking the train.

“Forcing people into cars makes a nonsense of any claims that the government cares for the environment.

“It also works as another poverty tax, leaving people who can't afford a car paying more for their travel on trains.”

Train drivers’ union Aslef (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen) also warned that rail fare rises could mean taking the car is cheaper for commuters.

Scotland organiser Kevin Lindsay said: “We want to see as many people use railways as possible and we certainly don’t want to see more cars on the road, but that’s what will happen. The railway should be there to serve the community, not to serve the rail bosses.

“They should be looking at bringing in a rail fare freeze. You can’t continue going to the same well and asking people to pay more. The fares now are so expensive people are being forced back into cars.”

Abellio ScotRail bosses, who run Scotland’s rail services, also came under fire after an eye-watering wage rise saw the highest-paid executive earn more than £250,000 in 2016.

Individual salaries are not revealed in the most recent company accounts, but the files do show that the highest-paid director got £286,214 in 2016, up from £154,089 in 2015.

The Dutch company reported a £3.3 million loss in 2016, after posting a £9.5m profit the previous year.

Warren-Corney said: “We believe that Abellio is badly mismanaging ScotRail. You’ve got very questionable high wages at the top and then the staff at the bottom who are being denied even the smallest bonus.

“The company failed to make profits despite the biggest investment in infrastructure in decades. And when directors are sitting on more than £100,000 and get a six-figure pay rise, you have to wonder what they’re doing to deserve it. If you or I were failing as badly as they were we wouldn’t get a pay rise, we’d get a P45.”

The biggest rises in rail fares in five years – 3.6 per cent for peak tickets – came into force in Scotland last week.

Scotrail can set the increase in line with the annual rate of inflation, which is measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) – which was 3.6 per cent in July when the increase was announced.

Warren-Corney added: “One can’t help but suspect a lot of it will be used to line the pockets of rail bosses. That’s always what we suspect when there’s no great improvement in services.”

ScotRail insisted it is reinvesting revenue from ticket price rises to “build the best railway Scotland has ever had” but the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said this is “disingenuous” and improvements will be carried out to comply with the franchise contract, which Abellio won in 2015.

Gordon Martin, the RMT’s regional organiser in Scotland, said: “Our members say the rail service is in the worst state since privatisation. To be fair, there is investment going in but it’s investment that’s been denied to the railway for decades and it’s already in the franchise commitment. It would have been in the agreement no matter which company won the franchise.

“And it’s all jam tomorrow, but they want the money from rail passengers today. The fares go up constantly. They’re actually pricing people out of work. This is already happening in England. People are having to leave their jobs. I can see that coming to a station near us sooner rather than later.”

Martin also accused Abellio ScotRail of taking money out of Scotland. He said: “Abellio don’t have shareholders because it’s a Dutch state-owned company. ScotRail keep saying to us that no money is going back to the Netherlands. They are being disingenuous.

“The Dutch transport minister is on record as saying money will come in to fund the Dutch railways from the profits of interests in Europe. The company is also on record as saying they make maximum profits from very little investment.”

A ScotRail spokesman denied the claims, saying “no dividend has been paid to the Netherlands”.

All three trade union – TSSA, the RMT and Aslef – want to bring rail services back into public ownership, a campaign which is also supported by the Scottish Greens.

The 10-year contract can be torn up in 2020 if only 84.3 per cent of trains are on time or less than five minutes late.

The transport spokesman for the Scottish Greens, John Finnie MSP, said: “Rail users in Scotland will undoubtedly be looking to the immediate future where they’ll expect the Scottish Government to prepare a public sector bid in time for the contract break point in 2020.

“Greens have long campaigned for rail services in Scotland to be put back in public hands and this fare hike is further proof of why we urgently need that.

“Evidently we also need greater investment in our railways. That’s why we’ve highlighted to government ministers that their budget should be more committed to low carbon projects, such as the public transport so many of us depend on.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said Transport Minister Humza Yousaf “can’t accommodate an interview” but defended rail services, pointing to “an improvement in performance over the months leading up to autumn which saw them (Abellio ScotRail) become the best-performing large rail operator in the UK and achieving a 90 per cent satisfaction rating amongst passengers”.

The spokeswoman also said the Transport Minister has ensured fares are set to the level of the Retail Price Index (RPI) for regulated peak fares (3.6 per cent) and one per cent below RPI for regulated off-peak fares (2.6 per cent). However, had had the increase been based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) – a more accurate determinant of inflation, according to the Office for National Statistics – the fare increases would have been 2.6 per cent and 1.6 per cent.

She added: “Scotland’s rail fares increase is lower than inflation [RPI] and lower than the average increase across the UK. We are currently undertaking a review of the National Transport Strategy, which will consider our long-term approach to ensuring the affordability of transport across Scotland. We want to see more people take the train and we recognise that this means prices have to be affordable and fair.

“Steps are being taken to ensure that a public-sector operator is able to bid for a future rail contract, and that there is a public-sector body able to do so. We secured the right for a public-sector operator to bid for the franchise, despite repeatedly being denied by successive Labour and Conservative Governments.”

In June 2017, Alex Hynes became Managing Director of the ScotRail Alliance – a partnership between Abellio ScotRail and Network Rail Scotland. He describes himself on LinkedIn as “an outstanding business leader” who “excels at … nurturing productive stakeholder relationships”.

However, when the Sunday Herald asked for an interview a spokesman for the company declined and instead issued a prepared statement on behalf of ScotRail Alliance engineering director Angus Thom, which said: “We are investing millions of pounds in Scotland’s railway to better connect our communities and support economic growth. Money from fares is reinvested to improve services, track and signals and customer experience as we continue to build the best railway Scotland has ever had.

“Our brand new electric trains are due to start running this year and our high-speed trains, which will give customers more comfortable journeys, will connect Scotland’s seven cities. The work we are doing will mean faster journeys, more seats and better services for our customers.”

When asked about claims commuters could choose to use the car instead of the train following rail ticket price increases, a spokesman for Scotrail said: “We don’t know on what basis or statistics the union [and Sunday Herald] are using to compare car and rail travel so this isn’t something we are in a position to provide a comment on.”

ENVIRONMENTAL CHARITIES ISSUE AIR POLLUTION WARNING AFTER RAIL FARE RISE

ENVIRONMENTAL charities have warned that rail fare increases could lead to more air pollution and urban congestion as commuters swap the train for the car to save hundreds of pounds a year.

Last year, the Sunday Herald revealed there are 38 zones in Scotland where safety standards for air quality are regularly broken, including several streets in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Glasgow was also named one of the most-polluted parts of the UK by the World Health Organisation last year, with 16 micrograms of sooty particles per cubic metre of air, exceeding the 10 micrograms safe limit.

And the most recent transport statistics for Scotland show a steady increase in car traffic over the last five years – while regulated rail fares have increased 12.7 per cent over the same period.

Scottish Government figures show 34.7 million vehicle kilometres were travelled by cars on all of Scotland’s roads in 2015-16, up from 33.6m in 2010-11, an increase of 3.2 per cent.

Official statistics also show 2.9m motor vehicles were licensed in Scotland in 2015, the highest-ever level – 13 per cent higher than in 2005 and up from 0.9 million in 1964.

In contrast, 537 million public transport journeys were made by bus, rail, air and ferry in 2015-16. However, two-thirds of commuters travelled to work by car or van in that period. Only four per cent took a train.

Dr Sam Gardner, acting director of WWF Scotland, a charity which works to reduce the impact of humans on the environment, said: “We know that the transport sector is now the biggest single source of greenhouse gasses in Scotland with more than 70 per cent of those emissions coming from our roads.

“The year-on-year train fare increases, alongside reductions in the cost of driving, has done nothing to tackle this. Indeed, these price rises make rail travel less attractive, just when we need to move people out of their cars.”

John Lauder, Scotland national director of Sustrans, a charity which promotes walking and cycling, said rail is an important part of “multi-modal journeys that people start or finish on foot or by bike".

He said: “Any decrease in the numbers of people travelling by train that results in an increase in the number of cars on the road is certainly not desirable. Scotland already has well-evidenced and significant problems with urban congestion, air pollution, carbon emissions, and the unhealthy lifestyles that come from being over-reliant on cars to get around.

“Tackling these issues make sense, which is why we welcomed the 2017 Scottish Government budget which doubled the funding for walking and cycling.

“Sustrans Scotland would be concerned by sustained increase in car use that further congests our towns and cities, making them less pleasant places to walk, cycle and spend time, and prevents Scotland from improving the state of public health.”

In September, The UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said the Scottish Government’s draft climate change plan focused too much on the rapid deployment of low carbon heating rather than addressing wider areas like transport emissions.

The CCC report found the most recent greenhouse gases target, for 2015, was met, but it said the draft plan contained little beyond existing policy which meant recent progress was unlikely to continue beyond 2020. The Scottish government is currently committed to a long-term aim of reducing emissions by 80 per cent.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham welcomed the CCC report and said “there are areas where more needs to be done in order to continue meeting our ambitious targets and to prepare for even greater future ambition under our proposed Climate Change Bill”.

The new bill is likely to set targets based on actual emissions, increasing the 2050 target to 90 per cent emissions reduction.

RAIL FARE RISES MEAN IT’S NOW CHEAPER TO COMMUTE BY CAR AND PAY FOR PARKING FOR PEAK JOURNEYS

Return journey Fuel Parking Train ticket (peak/off peak)

Glasgow/Edinburgh £8.52 £11 £24.70/£13

Stirling/Edinburgh £6.82 £11 £15.60/£9.70

Stirling/Glasgow £4.82 £10 £20.80/£13.80

Dundee/Glasgow £14.70 £10 £45.50/£38.70

Dundee/Edinburgh £11.40 £11 £35.40/£27.60

Aberdeen/Dundee £12 £6 £38.40/£30.90

Inverness/Aberdeen £19 £5 £54.60/£30.40

Glenrothes/Edinburgh £5.94 £11 £16.30/£9.70

Ayr/Glasgow £6.70 £10 £15.80/£10.80

NOTES

Fuel cost statistics are based on an average family hatchback car with a 1.5-litre petrol engine and an average fuel price of £1.20 per litre (source: RAC.co.uk mileage calculator).

Parking cost statistics are an average for nine hours (source: Parkopedia.co.uk).

Train ticket costs are for Monday, January 8 2018 (source: Scotrail.co.uk).