Let’s get fair fares on the road
Buses and trains which are better, cheaper and easier to catch aren’t just good for commuters – they’re a critical tool in the fight against the climate crisis.
Scottish Greens in government have taken important steps to make public transport more accessible, including the introduction of our free bus travel scheme for young people, the upcoming addition of free bus travel for asylum seekers and the current special offer to remove peak rail fares across Scotland until the end of June.
The Scottish Government’s recently published ‘fair fares’ transport review will help us go even further, finally making progress on issues like ‘integrated ticketing’.
This would let you use the same ticket across different modes of transport and different companies, just like you can in London and across much of Europe.
It also recommends that we run a pilot for flat fares for buses.
This comes just after the climate change committee report which made clear the scale of change still needed in Scotland.
Public transport is absolutely key to making that change and reducing our emissions.
Some huge progress was made on this locally last week when Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) approved plans to establish local bus franchising.
Thanks to a Transport Act we passed in parliament a few years ago, SPT is empowered to implement a ‘bus service improvement partnership.’
This gives the organisation the opportunity to build and grow a bus network across the west of Scotland which is accessible and affordable to more people.
As it stands, private operators pick all the most profitable routes and leave SPT to use public money to fill in the gaps in services.
In effect, we all pay twice to use the bus – once to the private operator and then again through our taxes to support the services those operators won’t run themselves.
In the short term, SPT will have the power to impose minimum frequencies for services, and a cap on fares.
But we can look to cities like Edinburgh and Manchester for inspiration in the journey towards fully publicly-owned bus services.
Lothian Buses is considered among the best in the UK and it’s no coincidence that it’s the only publicly-owned operator in Scotland. They run the service for the public, not for their own profits.
Manchester have recently taken their buses into public ownership but their experience suggests a similar approach here could take five to seven years before we have full public ownership.
Greens councillors and MSPs want to see a transfer to public ownership much sooner. Tackling the climate crisis in particular can’t wait that long.
Public transport is a public good.
The sooner we remove private profit the sooner we can improve services for all.
NEILSTON
Neilston Parish Church Hall 50 High Street
Tuesday 5.30pm
Call Elaine 07846 282105
MOSSPARK
South Western Social Club 20 Corkerhill Gardens
Thursdays 8.30am, 10am & 11.30am Call Elaine 07846 282105
BARRHEAD
1st Barrhead Scout Hall Arthurlie Street
Thursdays 5.30pm & 7pm Fridays 9.30am
Call Sarah 07834 517569
JOHNSTONE
5 Houstoun Square Saturdays 9am & 10.30am Call Jen 07887 981262