Restoring peak fares to ScotRail services is being seen as another case of financial mismanagement by the Scottish government and a hammer blow to boosting public transport.

A one-year pilot scheme aimed to ease costs for travellers and encourage them to switch from private cars as part of the green and congestion agenda.

However, the cut in the cost of travel did not achieve the desired targets, with regular industrial action, overcrowding and other disruptions, including anti-social behaviour, adding to commuters unwillingness to leave their cars at home. It also came during a period when many workers continued to work from home.

ScotRail is currently operating a reduced timetable, with fewer peak-time services, because of a pay dispute with trade unions.

About 600 services have been slashed in a bid to preserve “certainty and reliability”, which has seen trains start later in the morning and finish earlier in the evening.

Ultimately, the government has found itself unable to continue with the low fares policy on the state-owned service and, along with withdrawing free bus travel for asylum seekers, is admitting that it is no longer affordable. It has cost the taxpayer £40m.

The data showed there had been “limited increase in the number of passengers” and it did not encourage a “significant modal shift” from car to rail, said the government.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said those on middle incomes primarily benefited, and there had been a 6.8% uplift in passenger numbers. However, it would require a 10% increase for the scheme to be “self-financing”.

She said “The pilot will have been welcome in saving many passengers hundreds and in some cases thousands of pounds during the cost of living crisis, but this level of subsidy cannot continue in the current financial climate on that measure alone.”

The pilot scheme will end on 27 September and the cost of a rush-hour ticket between Edinburgh and Glasgow will almost double to £31.40. Super off-peak returns will also be reintroduced on certain routes, including Inverness to Elgin and Glasgow to Stirling.

Alex Rowley, Labour’s transport spokesman, said the increase was an additional “tax on workers” trying to reduce emissions by staying off the road.

“The SNP’s complete failure to provide a sustainable rail service has meant many of those who commute by train have been forced back into cars as they cannot rely on ScotRail services to run when they are supposed to,” he said.

“That there has been a 6.8% increase in rail users during the period of the peak fare suspension is nothing short of incredible when you consider the impact the SNP’s mismanagement has had on rail services.”

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson said the government should have done more to promote the peak fare removal.

“In the end, it should never have been mere numbers but having a rail system and fare system that is fair and affordable. We have gone backwards,” he said.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Daniel O’Malley said: “This SNP government is doing everything it can to punish people for choosing a more sustainable form of travel.

“With key routes such as Glasgow to Edinburgh now being cheaper to drive, many commuters just won’t see the point in getting the train.  

“ScotRail has been in public hands for more than two years. In that time, passengers have had to endure endless disruption all while rail fares continue to rise.

The Green party’s transport spokesman, Mark Ruskell, described the impact on passengers as “deeply disappointing”.

Linda Somerville, deputy general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, called the decision “short-sighted” and “regressive” which made a mockery of the government’s sustainable travel and net-zero targets.

“Peak fares are a stealth tax on workers which is bad for the climate, bad for our communities and bad for people’s wallets,” she said. “Fares have increased an eye-watering 9% during the trial alone with commuters now facing a double whammy of increased and peak fares next time they board.”