Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
Holyrood rejects SNP bid to restore peak rail fares and ditch free school meal plans
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Jenny Gilruth takes part in a debate on free school meals at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh, September 11, 2024

 THE SNP Scottish government has crashed to two defeats in one day after MSPs rejected their plans to bring back peak rail fares and abandon rollout of free school dinners.

Kevin Lindsay, Scottish organiser with rail union Aslef, branded the plan to ditch the £40 million pilot of flat fares on Scotland’s railways as “a disastrous, short-sighted decision” — a view shared by Holyrood, which voted 64 to 62 to keep them.

Despite opposition from rail unions and all but SNP MSPs however, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop’s plans plough on.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Scotland / 1 August 2025
1 August 2025
Members of Unite union take part in a demonstration to protest at Petroineos plans to close Grangemouth oil refinery, during the Scottish Labour Party conference at the Scottish Exhibition Centre (SEC) in Glasgow, February 21, 2025
Workers' Rights / 30 July 2025
30 July 2025
US President Donald Trump walks onto the first tee of the New Course, the second championship course at Trump International Golf Links, on the Menie Estate in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, July 29, 2025
Scotland / 30 July 2025
30 July 2025
Similar stories
Pupils eating school dinners
Britain / 2 December 2024
2 December 2024
A picket against peak fares
Britain / 1 October 2024
1 October 2024
Commuters and travellers at Edinburgh's Waverley Station
Britain / 30 September 2024
30 September 2024