New electric charging tariffs coming to stations in Fife

The rail company says it will also give motorists better access to charging points - and deter others from using the bays for free parking. The change will affect EV charging points at Kirkcaldy and Markinch stations.

The provision of free charging at ScotRail stations helped promote the use of electric cars while reducing carbon emissions, but that came with a annual bill of around £700,000 per year for the train operator. The charge of 43 pence per kilowatt hour - effective from January 8 - is similar to most local authorities and is in the bottom third of tariffs on the ChargePlace Scotland Network. It is expected that introducing the charges will discourage non-rail users from blocking the locations, something that has been a regular complaint from customers.ScotRail said the charges are aimed solely at helping it to recover the cost to the taxpayer of operating the charging points, with no profit being made from the tariff. A fixed overstay payment of £12 per 12 hours will apply, and while this will help to discourage people blocking access to others, customers will also be entitled to a refund if a train delay has been the cause of the overstay.

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 the charging points at our car parks are currently being blocked by vehicles overstaying, and the tariff 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 on improving rail services.”

Recent figures showed the number of public electric vehicle charging points in Fife has risen by nearly a fifth over the past year. There were 174 publicly available electric vehicle charging devices in the Kingdom as of October, including 32 rapid chargers.