Scotland

686 readers

85 users here now

Fàilte gu Alba!

Mon in tae Scotland!

Welcome to Scotland!

Quick rules:

dinnae be a cunt
posts should relate tae Scotland

Have at it, and haste ye back

Related communities

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Olap@lemmy.world

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

submitted 4 days ago by PonderingPotato@discuss.tchncs.de to c/scotland@lemmy.world

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Highstronaught@feddit.uk 6 points 4 days ago

Imo I would rather it be more akin to the German €50 ticket. But cost £140 instead and if gave a year of public transit across the whole country. It would prevent the money going elsewhere and prevent complaints from people not near public transit