It is claimed that the move will ensure that end-to-end fares will be at least 50p cheaper than buying one ticket part of the way to a destination, and a second ticket to complete the journey. These changes should remove expensive anomalies in fares from Dundee which gave rise to the Tay Tax campaign led by Dundee based Labour MSP, Jenny Marra.
For example, next month fares from Dundee to Portlethan will be cut by £11.30 (41%), to Aberdeen by £9.40 (34%), to Edinburgh by £7 (30%) and to Stirling by £5 (27%).
The new cheaper fares will be very welcome news for Dundee rail commuters. Dundee businesses will also welcome the cheaper fares as this could help attract more visitors into the City. With the VandA development, cheaper fares into Dundee should help build visitor numbers.
ScotRail have pointed out while the new deal will end split-ticketing on more popular journeys, it may still be possible to find a cheaper deal by stringing together several legs of a journey, or splitting less common fares.
It is not clear whether the changes will also help remove anomalies in the rail fares to and from Broughty Ferry which I have regularly highlighted. I hope that fares from our station are not some of the less popular routes ScotRail and the Scottish Government have overlooked. I have written to ScotRail to ask for clarification on this.
