THE SNP Scottish government has axed a pilot scheme to scrap peak fares on ScotRail — despite peak-time passenger numbers having soared by almost 40 per cent, Labour has said.

Peak fares will return today after SNP Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop axed a year-long trial, citing evidence that patronage had grown by just 6.8 per cent, short of the 10 per cent targeted to make the £40 million scheme self-financing.

And Aslef Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay has blasted the return of peak fares as “a tax on workers,” arguing that commuters to Glasgow from Ms Hyslop’s Linlithgow consistency could be £166 per month worse off.

“That is a shocking indictment of the decision she has made,” he said. “The Scottish government did not give people enough time to make the shift from road to rail.

“Removing peak fares was shown to work — and will work even better if given the time to do so. The Scottish government must think again.”

Now Labour net-zero spokesperson Sarah Boyack has challenged the basis of the decision, arguing that peak-time passenger numbers have grown from about 25m from October 2022 to July 2023 to 35m between October 2023 and July 2024 when the pilot was running.

Ms Boyack said: “This scheme has been sabotaged by SNP incompetence at every turn, but peak time passenger numbers have still soared.

“It’s clear eye-watering rail fares have forced people off peak time trains — and now thousands of Scots are at risk of once again being priced out of their daily commute, forced back into cars and stuck in traffic jams.”

Transport Scotland claimed Labour’s figures are “a misleading view of the way in which passengers numbers have increased” and that they “fail to acknowledge the extensive marketing that did take place during the trial.”