Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) will engage with Transport Scotland on potential funding to deliver the three stages of a formal assessment of bus franchising in the West of Scotland.
That was confirmed by the Partnership shortly after publication of the Scottish Budget for FY2026/27 on 13 January. £4 million has been allocated to support local authorities in what is described as building business cases for local bus improvements through franchising.
In late 2025, SPT wrote to the Scottish Government seeking financial support for the delivery of a formal Franchise Framework Assessment (FFA). While the Partnership’s favour of bus franchising for service reform is well-known, questions have been asked repeatedly about how it would be funded.
Powers to franchise bus services are within the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, although secondary legislation and guidance from Transport Scotland on how that part of Act will be applied are awaited.
In meeting papers from 19 December 2025, SPT noted that guidance was due “shortly.” When it arrives, the FFA programme – a draft of which was approved at that gathering – “will be further reviewed, and refined where necessary.”
While as of that date the Scottish Government had not responded to SPT’s funding request for the FFA, a spokesperson for SPT told routeone shortly after the Scottish Budget for the coming financial year was presented on 13 January that a reply had been received.
On the £4 million allocation to business case development for service improvements via franchising, they add: “We will now discuss with Transport Scotland what that means for SPT and whether it will support bus reform plans being taken forward by [the Partnership].”
SPT says that in developing the draft FFA programme, it engaged extensively with local transport authorities across the UK via membership of the Urban Transport Group.
“The lessons learned have been invaluable, particularly from those authorities at varying stages of developing franchising, those with both urban and rural networks, and more generally in developing fully integrated public transport systems,” the meeting papers add.
Work planned to be within SPT’s FFA process encompasses many areas that align with the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 “and are in keeping with similar work recently undertaken by public transport authorities in England.”
Stage one of the FFA is underway and focuses on refinement and further development options. Those works are due to finish by the end of Q1 2026. Stage two is slated to start in Q2 and capture the business case, associated statutory assessments and consultation, and an independent audit. That stage is expected to take up to two years.
Stage three is planned to commence during Q1 2029. It will involve a Traffic Commissioner Panel assessment, where the FFA and FFA audit will be audited. The panel will then approve, approve with modifications, or reject the FFA. That work is anticipated to take six months.
The estimated cost of technical and professional services to deliver those three stages is up to £6.5 million.
The FFA process does not include support for mobilisation and operational readiness should franchising progress. Projected costs of that have drawn separate criticism from operator McGill’s Buses and the Confederation of Passenger Transport Scotland.
While any move to roll out bus franchising in the West of Scotland is some years away, SPT says that in the meantime it is committed to continuing to support the Glasgow City Region Bus Partnership.
