Demand for tough new laws
A politician is calling on the Scottish Government to get in the driving seat and bring forward tough new bus laws.
Yesterday, subsidised SPT services partially replaced the number 8 and number 19 buses withdrawn by commercial operator McGills.
However, Labour MSP Neil Bibby believes tougher legislation is needed to regulate the bus market, secure what he claims would be a fairer deal for passengers and make local bus services democratically accountable.
Mr Bibby said the SNP promised a new Transport Bill to improve bus services in their 2016 manifesto but have not laid out when the Bill will go to Parliament and have not committed to bus regulation.
He said that with passenger numbers plummeting, services being cut back in Renfrewshire and fares continuing to rise, the MSP is demanding that the Bill is brought forward as a priority and that it is used to regulate bus services and put passengers first.
Mr Bibby said: “Tough new bus laws are needed now, not later. Under the SNP government, there has been a decade of decline in bus services. Passenger numbers are plummeting, fares are going up and a fifth of all bus routes have been cut.
“The deregulated market clearly isn’t working for passengers in Renfrewshire or across Scotland. It’s time for the Scottish Government to bring forward a new Transport Bill without delay and shift power from the owners of the big bus companies towards passengers and communities.
The status quo is not an option. Bus services should be democratically accountable and bus operators should put passengers before profit.
“Instead of ‘siding’ with the big bus companies, it’s about time the SNP started standing up for passengers. The Transport Bill should be used to deliver regulation of bus services and it should remove barriers to common ownership of buses. Passengers in Renfrewshire need bold new bus laws and we shouldn’t have to wait.”
The Renfrewshire Conservatives have hit out at the axing of the number 19 Paisley to Johnstone bus.
The service served the communities of Bridge of Weir, Houston, Crosslee and Brookfiled as well as the Inchinnan Business Park and was stopped on Saturday.
West Scotland MSP Maurice Golden said: “It is extremely disappointing that McGill’s have decided this route is no longer viable.
“For communities across Renfrewshire, having access to buses in their local communities is absolutely vital and opens up employment opportunities and enables people to remain socially active.
“These commu n i t i e s a c ross Renfrewshire are being badly let down by McGill’s ending the 19 service and all alternative options must be explored.”
McGill’s previously explained that dwindling numbers of passengers on certain routes made them financially impossible to run.