Better Buses for Strathclyde

Today in the Scottish Parliament I met with Ellie Harrison and Paul Shaw from the campaign group Better Buses for Strathclyde.

Local bus services were deregulated under the UK Tory Government in the 1980s - with disastrous results.

In North Ayrshire, we see bus services with higher prices providing a worse service than those in the public sector.

The SNP Government has given local authorities, and transport partnerships like Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), the power to run local bus services – something they were previously banned from doing under Tory legislation.

This would mean SPT setting routes, fares, and timetables unlike deregulated models where everything is left to the operators.

SPT has produced a route map for franchising local bus services, but this could mean waiting until 2031.

We need to move faster and ensure commuters don’t wait another five years for a properly functioning local bus network.