CALLS for changes to Scotland’s bus services are to be made in Holyrood this week following a decline in the number of journeys being taken by bus and high levels of passenger dissatisfaction.
John Finnie, the Scottish Greens’s transport spokesman, will press ministers to introduce a legally-binding target to reverse the downward trend, while Labour wants measures brought in to change how the service is owned and regulated.
Finnie will raise the issue at a Holyrood debate this week before MSPs vote on the inclusion of the new targets in the Scottish Government’s Transport Bill.
The move comes after figures in February revealed the number of bus journeys made in Scotland fell by almost 10 per cent in five years, going from 436 million in 2011-12 to 393 million in 2016-17.
A recent survey by Citizens Advice Scotland found two-thirds of Scots were unhappy with local bus services, with more than half complaining they ran late while 58 per cent described them as “poor value for money”.
Finnie said: “Three-quarters of all public transport journeys are made by bus, so these issues are of huge concern to millions of people across Scotland. For those who need to use buses they can be expensive and unreliable, while many more people are put off as they take too long, or there’s no direct service or no service at all.”
During the debate led by the Greens, Scottish Labour’s transport spokesperson, Colin Smyth, will set out his party’s proposals.
They include lifting a legal ban on councils establishing new municipal companies and tighter rules on consultation before routes are changed.
Labour also wants minimum standards to be set within any franchise agreement for concessionary bus travel for young people. This includes considering lifting the age for concessionary travel for young people to above 16 and a safeguard for the free bus pass for the over 60s.
They have called for the latter measure following a possible move by the Scottish Government to increase the age at which people are eligible to receive them.
Scottish Labour’s transport spokesperson, Colin Smyth, said: “Labour will fight tooth and nail to ensure our plans for municipal ownership and radical re-regulation of our buses are at the heart of the forthcoming Transport Bill.”
A Transport Scotland spokesman said it welcomed positive satisfaction scores for bus operators in the recent Transport Focus survey but added there was “always room for improvement”.
He added Transport Scotland was “committed to supporting services, tackling the historic decline in bus passenger numbers” and that the forthcoming Bill will be designed to give local authorities the flexibility to pursue partnership working, local franchising, or running their own buses.
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