Renfrewshire Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer has raised examples of poor quality, fragmented and unreliable bus services from across the West of Scotland in Parliament, saying that they show the need for buses to be brought back under public ownership.
Speaking during a debate led by Glasgow Green MSP Patrick Harvie on bringing the city’s bus services back into public hands, Greer highlighted how free bus travel for young people has protected many services from cuts and in some cases resulted in them being expanded and improved.
He contrasted this with examples of fragmented and poor quality services, including that of an 89-year-old constituent in Skelmorlie who needs to take eight buses in a day to get to and from his regular appointment at Crosshouse Hospital.
Scotland is the only country in the UK to offer free nationwide bus travel to everyone under 22, a policy secured by the Scottish Greens. Since the scheme began, over 225 million free bus journeys have been taken by young people across the country. 26,335 young people from Renfrewshire are now able to travel for free by bus across Scotland.
However, despite this progress, many communities across Scotland continue to face unreliable, expensive, and patchy bus services. Services are often determined by how much profit a company could make, rather than public need. This leaves many people without reliable local bus services and in some cases with no buses at all.
Private operators continue to receive large grants of public money despite cutting vital routes, raising fares, and leaving passengers without a reliable service.
Ross Greer MSP argues the current model is failing the West of Scotland and that public control and ownership of bus services is essential to reversing the decline of local transport networks, increasing accessibility, and reducing fares.
Commenting, Ross Greer MSP said: “A hospital appointment requiring eight buses and the other examples I mentioned in Parliament prove that our bus services need a major shakeup. Thatcher’s selloff of the bus network has left us with a patchwork of often unreliable, increasingly expensive services which just don’t meet people’s needs.
“Young people across Renfrewshire have taken over 7.5 million free bus journeys since the Scottish Greens introduced that scheme. The increase in passenger numbers driven by young people across the country has saved a number of services which would otherwise have been cut. But we need to go much further than constantly fighting to save individual routes and services. A total shakeup is needed.
“Public transport should be run in the public interest, not for private profit. Yet here in Scotland we have a privatised bus network which also receives millions of pounds of public money. We pay twice, once for our ticket and again in taxes. That money is then given to these bus companies as grants to run the essential routes which they otherwise wouldn’t bother with.”
Ross added: “That’s why the Scottish Greens support SPT’s efforts to put more of the Strathclyde bus network under public control. Ultimately, the aim should be for a comprehensive publicly owned bus network across Glasgow and the West of Scotland, similar to the excellent Lothian Buses model.
“That would be good for both people and the planet.”