Passenger numbers for saved bus confusing

YEARLY numbers of passengers using the saved 101/102 bus service have been shown to be lower in 2023 than 2022.

However there is not a graph for 2024.

The route, between Dumfries and Edinburgh via Biggar and West Linton, is subsidised at a cost of £385,000 per annum – shared between SBC, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) and SWestrans.

Two weeks ago the Peeblesshire News reported that Houston’s Coaches, of Lockerbie, which took over the service and Scottish Borders Council (SBC), one of those subsidising the route, were happy that 176,000 passengers used the bus from April 2023 to April 2024.

However an SBC graph, of the years ending April 1 2022 and 2023, has revealed that overall numbers of passengers using the 101/102 bus were down from 2022 to 2023.

This conflicts with partial data supplied by SPT.

An SPT Excel sheet, which covers from April 2022 to December 2023, has two data sets, which can be compared but are not full years and it does not cover 2023 to 2024.

From April 16, 2022 to November 19, 2022 total passenger numbers were 104,249 and, from April 15, 2023 to November 18, 2023 were 104,251 – meaning numbers for those periods were about level.

The matter was raised at West Linton Community Council (WLCC) on Monday evening.

Stand Up For Our Buses’ (SUFOB) Ian Reid told the meeting: “General feedback is that Houston’s is good and popular.”

However, Mr Reid added on the subject of overall usage, “despite the buses appearing to be busier”, there are fewer runs and fewer actual journeys.

He said: “This time next year we will be back to procurement (of the service).”

On Tuesday, Janet Moxley, of SUFOB, said: “Given that services have been cut by 20 per cent its really positive how well passenger numbers are holding up. If there are fewer buses inevitably there will be fewer passengers.

“My guess is that the average number of passengers per run has been about constant or even increased. If things started moving the other way and we had more buses we would have more passengers.”

WLCC chairman Mark McDavid said: “We cannot have all or nothing, regardless of the numbers we still need a bus service.”

WLCC made a plea on social media this week for people to support the service and stated: “We must use the bus service to keep it viable and keep it for the future.”