Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) has approved recommendations for the reform of bus services in the region that include commencement of work towards franchising.
It follows the publication of a report by SPT that claims such a reregulated approach will give “the greatest certainty of making significant improvement to the [bus] network to achieve passenger growth and better accessibility for all and deliver wider public policy outcomes.”
The partnership has again noted that franchising could take between five and seven years to deploy and that partnership-based work should continue in the meantime.
The latter interim approach calls for “private and public sector commitments to arrest further decline [and] stabilise and improve the bus network while we work collectively to establish the franchise model,” SPT says.
Chair Cllr Stephen Dornan describes the franchising approach as “a bold and ambitious plan” that “sets a strong approach to tackle a declining bus market,” although he acknowledges that rollout will take time and investment.
The latter will require the Scottish Government to step up with “real funding and a commitment to support public transport, which for too long has been forgotten and now requires urgent action,” adds Cllr Dornan.
McGill’s Buses Managing Director Ralph Roberts and co-owner Sandy Easdale have both previously criticised talk of bus franchising in Strathclyde, with Mr Roberts recently saying that the operator would take any decision to adopt regulation “to every court in the land and beyond” in a wider excoriation of SPT and some figures involved.
A consultation into franchising will now launch in April. McGill’s will “set out our position more fully at that point,” adds Mr Roberts, but he has again underlined the need to reduce congestion that impacts bus services for those services to succeed.
“The biggest priority for SPT should be to push local authorities (LAs) to manage their infrastructure under the powers they already have, which will allow bus users to make more consistent, quicker and cheaper journeys,” he continues.
Mr Roberts add that SPT and LAs have failed in that regard, noting that “a world class bus system cannot operate on third world infrastructure.” SPT Vice-Chair Cllr David Wilson has acknowledged that bus priority is a key need, saying that franchising must be integrated with such work.
