Bus project gets green light

A community project to help elderly and infirm people from Rutherglen and Cambuslang get to hospital appointments was one of 10 initiatives to receive funding from SPT last year.

The CamGlen NHS Patient Volunteer Car Project, which is run by Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire (Vaslan) was handed £2500 to continue their work.

Members of the SPT operations committee were given an update on the project at their most recent meeting last week.

The CamGlen project is available to residents who cannot get to hospital appointments. Volunteer drivers are used to take them to and from hospitals, health centres or dentists. Vaslan say the scheme has encouraged more people to book appointments.

A spokesperson said: “We’ve found it’s made a big difference to the number of people who don’t make appointments. Particularly if you are elderly or infirm, it is not always possible to leap on and off buses, and often bus services do not cover routes they need. The grant funding has been extremely welcome, as without it, it would not be possible to provide this service for free.”

The money has gone towards petrol costs for the volunteer drivers who give up their spare time to help out.

There was other good news for travellers in Rutherglen and Cambuslang at the same committee. A new contract for the 64/164 and 364 services was awarded for the next three years while a temporary contract for the 46 has been put in place while a permanent provider is sought.

The 64 and 164 link Halfway with Glasgow via Parkhead and Carmyle while the 364 runs from Newton Farm through Cambuslang to Parkhead. A temporary contract is currently in place until July 11 when First Glasgow will take it over until July 14, 2018. Due to the high mileage involved, two new SPT vehicles have been released for the operation of the contract, which has a tender price of £558,014. The temporary contract for the 46, which runs from Castlemilk to Queenslie, via Rutherglen, Cranhill and Greenfield, has gone to JJ Travel after First Glasgow withdrew their commercial service. It will run until July 11 at a cost of £1990 a week.

Rutherglen MSP James Kelly said: “Providing good bus services is a big issue for Rutherglen and Cambuslang.”