Decarbonising Transport

Part of Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:30 pm on 5 September 2024.

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Photo of Fiona Hyslop Fiona Hyslop Scottish National Party 2:30, 5 September 2024

I completely reject that analysis. I have talked about the increase in electric chargers. We have the most comprehensive electric charging system outside London, which is encouraging people to switch to electric vehicles. I also point out that, if we want to tackle car use, investing in buses would probably be our preference. We have limited choices. Do we invest in rail, where, as we know from the evaluation, the impact is more on middle to upper-income passengers and does not encourage more people to switch from car? Investment in other modes might be a better use of public funding. I am still committed to trying to make rail more attractive to more people. However, 75 per cent of passenger journeys on rail are already on electrified lines. We are improving what we are doing to support the bus fleet. That is a strong argument on decarbonisation. I am very pleased about that. I recently met the Climate Change Committee and discussed our proposals. The committee knows that we are proposing to bring forward a 20 per cent car reduction—