Transport Scotland and Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) Scotland have agreed terms for reimbursing operators for providing concessionary travel from April 2015.
Describing concessionary travel as “key part of the Scottish Government’s social wage,” Scottish Transport Minister Derek Mackay said: “The latest reimbursement terms are based on a formula agreed with the industry in 2013. They will help provide stability for the industry, with recent energy forecasts also taken into account to help manage the costs of the scheme – welcome news for taxpayers.”
The current reimbursement rate is 58.1% of the adult single fare, with a budget of £192m.
Based on the agreed formula and recent forecasts on industry costs and consumer prices, and following technical discussions and agreement with the CPT, the new rates will be 57.1% in 2015/16 and 56.9% in 2016/17. The budgets for each year will be £202m and £212m respectively.
George Mair, Director of CPT Scotland, said: “The agreement signifies the end of a thorough and fact-based look at National Concessionary Travel Scheme reimbursement which should ensure that the budgets for the next two years more closely mirror actual costs.
“This gives bus operators a welcome degree of certainty and signifies a pathway for future such discussions. We thank Transport Scotland for its constructive and positive approach throughout this process.”
