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Meeting of the Parliament 19 April 2012

19 Apr 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Bus Services

Harvie, Patrick Green Glasgow Watch on SPTV

The website is called betterbuses.org, if the member would like to visit it.

The idea behind the site is that it should be a place where people can offer a first-person perspective on their bus services and say for themselves what their priorities are. Rather than presenting a proposal from another politician, I wanted to give people a space in which they could set their own priorities. For some people, price will be the issue; for others, it will be reliability, cleanliness or safety. Different issues will affect different people, and I wanted to provide a place where those perspectives could come together. I encourage members to take a look at the site, and I encourage anyone who is listening to the debate who uses the bus in Glasgow or elsewhere to send in their comments.

I will read out a few of the comments that have come through to the site already. One user said:

“I’ve given up on buses since First Glasgow started shamelessly exploiting their monopoly on routes ... with extortionate fares. Now, rather than walk the 110 yards from my front door to the bus stop ... I’ll walk 3 miles to get the train”.

Not all the comments are about prices. Another user said:

“Would it really be asking a lot for First to give some explanation, and maybe even say sorry, when they turf everyone out of the bus and tell us to wait for the next one? Instead of just shouting ‘Youse have all tae get aff.’”

A stream of people have cited cleanliness as the biggest issue that impacts on how they feel about using the bus. Many others have commented on the difficulty of getting access to a ticket and the lack of integrated bus and train tickets. Another comment was that if buses cannot give change, vending machines should be available at the stops or elsewhere in the streets. Many people have mentioned the option of having an Oyster card-style system in Glasgow or across Scotland, which should be a priority of the Scottish Government and should not have been shelved for the duration of its present period in office. Many other comments have been posted on the website, which I may have time to come to in my closing speech.

The principal issue is that, as politicians, we should not be grandstanding on the issue; we should be listening to the people who use the services, who are being affected by the radical cuts in those services and the increases in fares.

I move amendment S4M-02639.4, to leave out from second “notes” to end and insert:

“believes that successive Scottish administrations have failed both to provide the level of financial support necessary to maintain high quality and affordable bus transport in all communities and to adequately regulate the industry to ensure value for taxpayers’ money; recognises that bus fares in many parts of Scotland are now less affordable than train fares and even taxis in some circumstances; considers that fuel prices are likely to continue to rise and that this will create a greater need for high quality and affordable public transport as an alternative to private car use; notes the lack of any statutory body protecting the interests of bus passengers; believes that bus users’ voices are not being adequately heard in the debate on bus transport; encourages bus passengers to publish their views through the http://betterbuses.org website; calls on the Scottish Government to reverse the cut in the Bus Service Operators Grant, ensure that overall public spending on bus services is adequate to protect services, jobs and fares and extend the remit of Passenger Focus in Scotland to bus users, and believes that new legislation is required to enable the regulation of bus services in Scotland to ensure sustainable and reliable bus services throughout the country.”

09:53

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Meeting of the Parliament 19 April 2012

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