Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Scots train fare increases 'far outstrip price of filling up car in past decade'
dailyrecord.co.ukScots have seen rail ticket costs shoot up by more than a third in the past decade, according to a union - far outstripping the price of filling up a car.
On Monday the Scottish peak and off-peak regulated fares have gone up by another 3.8%, with peak prices rocketing by 38% since the start of 2012.The RMT says the price of petrol, meanwhile, has gone up by only 8.6% during the same period.
The latest rise comes ahead of ScotRail 's proposed closures of three ticket offices in Cartsdyke, Clydebank and Woodhall, and the reduction in opening hours of more than 100 others across the network.
Mike Lynch, the union's general secretary, said: "We already have a cost-of-living crisis and now there is a climate cost to latest Scottish rail fare hikes which will deter people from using rail, especially when we know the price of using rail has risen four times more quickly than the cost of petrol in the last decade.""Rising fares, fewer services and cuts to ticket offices and safety critical rail infrastructure means ScotRail passengers will be paying more for less."On the one hand, the Scottish Government has said it wants to reduce the distances travelled by car for a healthier, fairer and greener Scotland yet, at the same time, it is increasing rail fares during a cost-of-living crisis and presiding over proposals to reduce ticket office hours by a third, slash services by more than 10% and significantly cut funding for rail infrastructure."If the Scottish Government is serious about fighting climate change then it needs to scrap these cuts and instead invest in creating an affordable, accessible and properly staffed rail network that enables people to ditch the car in favour of the low carbon railway."A Transport Scotland
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