FOI/202600512725 · FOI · partially withheld
Transport Scotland - Highlands £2 bus fare cap pilot: FOI release
Information requested
Any assessment carried out by the Scottish Government regarding the impact of the £2 bus fare cap pilot on passenger numbers on rail services in the Highlands, including the Far North Line. Please include any reports, analysis, data, or internal correspondence relating to this assessment. Details of any discussions held between the Scottish Government and ScotRail regarding the potential competitive impact of the £2 bus fare cap on rail services. Please include minutes of meetings, correspondence (including emails), briefing notes, and any related documents.
Response
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 29(1)(a) (policy formulation of FOISA applies to that information. The reason why that exemption applies is explained below.
1.
The purpose of the £2 bus fare cap pilot in the Highlands and Islands, technically the HiTrans Regional Transport Partnership (RTP) area (Highland, Orkney, Moray, Western Isles and Argyll and Bute (excluding Lomond and Helensburgh)) and the ZetTrans RTP area (Shetland), is to test the impact on bus patronage and modal shift of such an intervention.
The bus fare cap pilot caps the cost of single fare journeys within the HiTrans and ZetTrans areas to a maximum of £2 and for journeys that start or finish outside the HiTrans area, the cap applies only to the part within HiTrans.
The focus of analysis will be on an ex-post evaluation of the impact on bus patronage, car use and rail passengers which will be published following the conclusion of the pilot.
As part of the preparation for the evaluation, analysis was undertaken on the potential cross mode effects using the Transport Model for Scotland. See https://www.transport.gov.scot/our- approach/industry-guidance/land-use-and-transport-integrations-in-scotland-latis/#64700 for details on the model itself.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 29(1)(a) (policy formulation) of FOISA applies to that information. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing space for officials to develop and formulate ongoing modelling work to help inform future policy considerations of Ministers. Disclosure is likely to undermine the quality of this process, which would not be in the public interest.
2.
To date there has only been discussion of the issues that will be faced in undertaking the future evaluation of the impact of the fare cap between analysts in Transport Scotland, Scot Rail and Scot Rail Holdings. This was part of a regular catch-up and discussion of teams ongoing work that is not minuted. This has so far discussed how to account for the the Permanent Removal of Peak Fares (PRPF), the closure of Glasgow Central and the £2 bus fare cap each, to a greater or lesser extent impacting on each other, in terms of overall demand and revenue as part of the proposed evaluation of the £2 cap and wider ongoing work on the PRPF. Transport Scotland have supplied Scot Rail with a list of cross boundary services, primarily through the exchange of NAPTAN data on the HITrans boundary (map is provided in Annex B attached) and through a list of cross boundary services on 25th March. These were exchanged via TEAMs and an email referring to this can be found in Annex A attached.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 29(1)(a) (policy formulation of FOISA applies to that information. The reason why that exemption applies is explained below. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 29(1)(a) (policy formulation) of FOISA applies to that information. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.