The Scottish Government is behind on its 2019 commitments to decarbonise bus fleets and prioritise bus infrastructure, and needs to perform a “radical reset” towards net-zero carbon investment, according to a new report by Transform Scotland.
The publication, Off Track, from the Scottish alliance for sustainable transport analyses progress against pledges made in the Scottish Government’s 2019 Programme for Government (PFG).
With regards to bus, the only area in which its progress is marked “good” was its commitments to under-22s free bus travel.
When it comes to the commitment to “remove the majority of diesel buses from public transport by the end of 2023”, the report issues a “no progress” summary. It notes that the most recent data available, from June 22, showed 85% of buses were diesel-powered.
The publication states: “This target was extremely ambitious given the timescales involved, so the fact that the target will not be met is disappointing but, ultimately, unsurprising.”
It rules progress on bus infrastructure as “slow”. Holyrood had said it would “invest over £500 million in improved bus priority infrastructure to tackle the impacts of congestion on bus services and raise bus usage”.
However, it notes that just 5%, or £25.8 million, of the available funding from the Bus Partnership Fund – devised to improve bus priority infrastructure – has been allocated, according to the Government in May 2023.
The report comments: “The Bus Partnership Fund announcement was a strong commitment to supporting Scotland’s declining bus sector but failure to deliver the funds in a timely manner is undermining the ability of the sector to bounce back from the pandemic.”
The report also singles out the PFG commitment to begin “plans to reallocate road space on parts of the motorway network around Glasgow to high‑occupancy vehicles such as buses”. The report says no progress has been made to reallocate road space on the M8, M77 and M80.
Transform Scotland’s labels progress “good” on the pledge to provide free bus travel for under-22s. The Free Bus Travel Scheme was launched on schedule in January 22 and, by June 2023, young people in Scotland had used it to make 68 million journeys.
The report adds: “At the time of launch, the scheme saw a relatively low uptake rate as a result of a complex application process and lack of a national information campaign. However, these issues have since been addressed and the initiative has been successful in allowing young people to travel, expand their horizons and participate in increased education and leisure activities.”
In the introduction to the report, Transform Scotland Director, Colin Howden, writes: “It’s now imperative that we see a genuinely radical reset towards zero-carbon investment, with the nice soundbites about ‘net zero’ replaced by investment decisions prioritising low-carbon investment over the failed transport priorities that have led us so far off track in the first place.”
Last year’s equivalent report from Transform Scotland, Stuck in Traffic, had forecast that Scotland’s decarbonisation plans were “unlikely to be met”.
