JUST 2% OF FIRST CLASS SEATS SELL

Call to ditch pricey options and free up more space on crammed services across country

- DAN VEVERS

SCOTRAIL is being urged to ditch first-class seats after just two per cent were used last year - leaving 150,000 empty every month.

The findings come despite routine complaints of overcrowding on many key services made worse by a reduced timetable which ran from July to the end of September.

The Scottish Greens, who obtained the data via freedom of information, hit out at the "waste" of seating while many in standard class are often forced to stand.

The party found from April 2023 to April 2024, a total of 39,000 first-class tickets were bought on ScotRail services only around two per cent of the 2million were available.

Now the Greens are urging Scotland's railway operator nationalised by SNP ministers in 2022 - to declassify first-class seating and phase out luxury carriages.

They pointed to other examples around the UK including London Northwestern Railway, Southeastern Rail and Greater Anglia who have all taken steps to ditch first-class seats.