THE Scottish Government has revealed it wants to introduce franchising to give local councils more control over bus services.

It would mean unprofitable but socially necessary routes could be packaged with more lucrative runs so that private companies could no longer cherry-pick financially attractive services while abandoning the rest.

Rocketing fares and alarming falls in passenger numbers have put pressure on Transport Minister Humza Yousaf to take action and he described the figures as “bad news”.

He said:“I am not happy to preside over this decline so I want to at least put in place the measures that will reverse the trajectory. The franchising idea would give a voice to bus users at a local level.

“This is enabling legislation, so it is local authorities coming up with the ideas. They could franchise their entire area, a certain city or town.

“What they would also do is take those socially necessary services, which might not be commercially viable, bundle or package them together, and then they might be an attractive proposition to franchise.”

Yousaf said franchising was not the same as re-regulation but would help to bring back more public control over the sector.

“Wholesale re-regulation is not the answer to reversing the decline, and private companies of course would be allowed to bid for franchises along with any publicly-owned operator,” he added.

A new Transport Bill is expected to be introduced soon by the Scottish Government following consultation with stakeholders.

A spokesperson said that some of the measures in the UK Bus Services Bill, such as open data on pricing and punctuality and smart ticketing, could be copied in Scotland.

At the moment fares range across Scotland from 7p to £1.80 per mile, according to research by Citizens Advice Scotland. In some rural areas, the price of a return fare to the nearest job centre was £9 and more than a third of places surveyed were without Sunday services to nearby hospitals.

The franchise plan has sparked accusations of a Scottish Government U-turn, however.

SNP ministers failed to support two proposed Labour bills on bus regulation – now they have been forced to accept they have overseen a broken bus market for too long,” said said transport spokesperson Neil Bibby MSP. “Scottish Labour has made the case for local bus franchising powers and has been proven right.”

Unite Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said union members in the bus industry were struggling to provide a decent service to the public.

He added: “That’s not their fault – it’s the fault of a deregulated system that allows too many bus companies to put profit before people. That’s why we started our Haud the Bus campaign, calling on the Scottish Parliament to bring our buses back under public control. We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to making public regulation and ownership of buses part of the Transport Bill but it’s a cautious welcome.

"We’ll obviously have to wait and see what the proposals are in detail. “ The Confederation of Passenger Transport said local authorities had had the ability to introduce a form of franchising since the 2001 Transport Bill but none had chosen to do so.