Bus passengers fear changes to network
Concerns raised at ‘Meet the Manager’ consultation
More than 1000 concerned bus passengers voiced their fears over the major changes to West Lothian’s bus network proposed by First Scotland.
Hoards of bus passengers attended the ‘Meet the Manager’ consultation event at Livingston Bus Terminal on Friday ( June 1) to share their views with First Scotland East regarding the wholesale changes proposed for the West Lothian bus routes.
Local politicians have also raised concerns regarding the changes, saying there is lots of anger in the local communities.
However, First Scotland East have moved to quell fears saying that they will be reviewing all feedback and suggestions as they try to ‘improve the local bus network’.
Cathy Muldoon, executive councillor for transport and development, said: “I share the concerns of local people about some of the proposed changes put forward by First Scotland East in their consultation, and myself and the leader of the council have requested an urgent meeting with the managing director of First Scotland East to discuss these proposed changes.
“It is First Scotland East that is proposing changes to these commercial services, not West Lothian Council. The council has no authority over these commercial changes.”
MSPs also demanded meetings with First managers over the proposed network changes.
Angela Constance, SNP MSP for Almond Valley, said: “Following the First Bus consultation about proposed changes to bus routes, there is a lot of concern and anger about the implications of these radical proposals for local communities. I have requested an urgent meeting with First Bus to discuss their proposals.”
Neil Findlay, Labour MSP for Lothian, said: “I am writing to First Bus and I will be meeting their management soon to raise these issues as quickly as possible. There is a lot of concern locally and this issue needs to be dealt with directly.
“I am asking constituents to email me to raise their concerns so I can put these across on your behalf and defend the bus service that the people of West Lothian need.
“We can see the chaos that has happened with the trains in Northern England of late, we can’t allow similar cuts to cause havoc here.”
Andrew Jarvis, managing director for First Scotland East, said the bus company was engaging wi t h the local communities over the consultation.
He said: “First Scotland East can confirm that we are currently undertaking a consultation process as part of our on-going network review in West Lothian. We have been engaging with West Lothian Council as well as customers and other local stakeholders on our current proposals for network changes across West Lothian.
“The aim of the current network review is to increase the number of journeys and services on routes or in areas that are growing in passenger numbers and reduce those in areas that are getting less busy. We also want to improve the punctuality as we know the impacts of the very variable traffic in and around Edinburgh in particular, does at times impact on the reliability of services in West Lothian.
“Under the revised proposals we want to try and maintain as many direct links to Edinburgh as we can reliably provide whilst also developing a “turn up and go” style of services for Livingston, with the bus terminal as the main transport hub. The network is designed to provide easy connections between services at the terminal.
“We will be in a position to give an update on proposals in the coming week or so, and while we are aware that these changes cannot please everyone, we hope that by the end of it these changes will improve our local bus network to the benefit of our passengers.”