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If the Scottish government proposed to increase tax by 1% and make trains free would you be in favour? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 days ago by PonderingPotato@discuss.tchncs.de to c/scotland@lemmy.world

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Assume every tax rate except for the "personal allowance" was increased by 1% to fund free train travel. That would mean someone at the median annual income of £38k would pay about £254 extra tax per year ((38000 - 12570) * 0.01)

Would you be in favour of this?

Some numbers for context:

The government raised £17.1 billion in 2024.

The ScotRail revenue for 2024 was £351m (page 17).

So to offset the cost of tickets, the government would have to raise £351m which divided by the 2.46 million people in work would be an average cost of £140 extra per person collected per year, so I believe 1% may be able to pay for it comfortably, and even improve the service, to compensate for the extra demand on free travel.

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[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

If everyone had paid for public transport through their taxes it would be a fairly good incentive to use it. I had a travel pass through work and it was really effective at driving me away from my car and onto the train. If more people use public transport it will take people out of their cars, so traffic will improve. It would also get rid of fare evasion policing and many kids who can't afford tickets would not interact with the legal system.

I think it would be a wonderful thing to enact and would have many benefits for both those using the public transport and those who are not. It would make the air cleaner, make the system more efficient, and would serve as a model for the world.