EV charging at ScotRail stations from Monday, January 8

An electric vehicle charging tariff will be applied to all charging points across the ScotRail parking network, which it says will bring it “into line with other service providers in Scotland”.

The provision of free charging at ScotRail stations helped promote the use of electric cars while reducing carbon emissions. However, providing it free of charge costs the train operator around £700,000 per year.

The charge of 43 pence per kilowatt hour is similar to most local authorities and is in the bottom third of tariffs on the ChargePlace Scotland Network.

It is hoped introducing charges will discourage non-rail users from blocking the locations, something that has been a regular complaint from customers.

David Lister, ScotRail director of safety, engineering and sustainability, said: “We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible journey experience and improving the availability of electric vehicle charging points is one of the ways we can do that.

“One of the main complaints we receive is that charging points at our car parks are currently being blocked by vehicles overstaying; the tariff from January 8 will help to remove that issue.

“It is important that ScotRail delivers the best possible value to taxpayers and the charging tariff will ensure that we recover the cost of operating them, allowing funds to be spent instead on improving rail services.”

Charges are aimed solely at helping ScotRail to recover the cost to the taxpayer of operating the charging points, with no profit being made.

There are currently 60 locations with charging points at ScotRail stations, with 80 points providing 168 individual connections.

A fixed overstay payment of £12 per 12 hours will apply; this will help discourage people blocking access to others but customers will also be entitled to a refund if a train delay has been the cause of the overstay.

ScotRail has achieved a 12 per cent reduction in emissions (CO2e) since 2019/20. The provision of electric vehicle charging points supports these efforts and helps towards achieving Scottish Government net-zero targets.