Campaigners welcome U-turn on bus to capital
Reinstating daily service
Campaigners have expressed their delight after transport bosses agreed to re-instate a direct bus link between Birnam and Edinburgh.
CityLink will run one daily direct service from Monday, June 5.
The bus will leave the Highland Perthshire village at 11.20am, arriving into Edinburgh Bus Station at 1.09pm.
There will then be a return journey leaving Edinburgh at 7.10pm, and arriving back in Birnam at 9.15pm.
The service between Birnam and the capital was cut in November 2015, and the group Save Our Birnam Bus Service has been campaigning ever since to get the service reinstated.
Pam Green, the group’s chairperson, said: “We are delighted that, after 18 months of campaigning, CityLink have listened to our well-argued case and are reinstating a morning, inter-city bus from Birnam and Dunkeld to Edinburgh, and an evening one back.
“Villagers and tourists will again be able to make a return journey on a direct bus to and from Edinburgh in a day.
“This will be an enormous relief to villagers who have had to experience considerable worry and stress changing buses over the past 18 months to make the journey to visit friends and family in Edinburgh. Visitors and tourists, who are important for our local economy, will now be able to travel easily to visit us.
“This campaign has been a team effort by villagers, local businesses, councillors and our local MSP John Swinney. We are grateful to CityLink for listening to us. We are a small, rural village but we are now reconnected to the city and this means so much to us all.”
Perthshire North MSP John Swinney declared:“I am delighted that Scottish CityLink have made the decision to reinstate the direct bus service between Birnam and Edinburgh.
“I am particularly pleased for the members of the Birnam bus group, who have led a formidable, considered and successful campaign.
“The new service is a welcome reward for the time, and effort, that they have dedicated to this cause.
“I am also very grateful to Scottish CityLink for being receptive to the idea of reinstating this service, and for taking the necessary steps to see that it is done.
Pictured, from left, are Jim Kirkland, Perthshire North MSP John Swinney, Scottish Government Rural Economy, and Connectivity Minister Fergus Ewing MSP, Pam Green, Hari Angus and Dave Roberts
“I very much hope that it will be warmly received by the local community.
“I would, of course, encourage local residents to make full use of the service over the summer to ensure that it becomes a permanent part of the Scottish CityLink timetable, going forward.”
A spokesperson for Scottish CityLink said: “We are pleased to announce that
we will be introducing a new daily return service between Birnam and Edinburgh.
“The news comes after Scottish CityLink met with local residents and listened to their feedback following network changes in the area around 18 months ago.”
The Birnam to Edinburgh link will run daily throughout the summer until October.