Meeting of the Parliament 17 May 2023
Buses connect us to our communities and to each other, and they give us freedom and choice. A good bus network should give us an environmentally friendly, accessible and cheaper alternative to cars.
My constituency in West Lothian is a semi-rural area, with many towns and villages with a higher-than-average reliance on cars. Bus services in West Lothian are woefully unreliable currently and have been for some time. Changes to commercial bus operators’ services have meant that many services no longer run, with some villages effectively cut off at certain times and on a Sunday.
Of course, commercial operators’ decisions to cancel or withdraw services are not the original source of current bus service provision issues. When I have raised concerns with our two current major bus operators—McGill’s and Lothian Buses—they cite driver shortages as one of the major reasons for declining service provision.
We know that driver shortages are a direct result of the impact of Brexit, which the people of Scotland did not vote for, and that the UK Government’s current immigration system further limits potential recruitment of European Union drivers. I suspect that I do not need to reiterate to members the extreme and continuing adverse economic impact of Brexit on Scotland’s economy. At the very least, the UK Government must agree to put bus drivers on the shortage occupation list.
The Scottish Government, using its devolved powers, has provided local authorities with the powers to introduce improvements to bus services in their local areas via section 34 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. More than £500 million, via the bus partnership fund, will be distributed through 14 bus partnerships across Scotland, one of which is West Lothian bus alliance in my constituency. Initial funding of £25.8 million was allocated to the partnerships so that they could undertake appraisal work.
A pressing issue remains: we have yet to find out what action the local authority will take with those new powers. West Lothian Council is already working on a long-term review of public transport options for subsidised support, which it can then apply to the £500 million bus partnership fund to support. However, in the meantime, buses are being cancelled.
My constituents cannot get to their work or to hospital. We need bus services support in the interim before people lose their jobs or just revert back to car usage. Under pressure from the public and the SNP opposition, the Labour-led, Tory-supported West Lothian Council finally agreed to emergency support for one of the cancelled routes recently.
West Lothian may be semi-rural, but it is a major route for commuting by car along the M8 and M9 corridors to both Glasgow and Edinburgh. As far more people live in West Lothian than in the city of Dundee, if Scotland is to reach net zero, we need viable alternatives to car use.
Park-and-bus-ride opportunities on the M8 near the Heartlands junction and at the new Winchburgh junction on the M9 are needed, but transport co-ordination is required for that, and I am told that to date that has been singularly absent, with little movement towards it occurring. Having reliable, circular bus links to the two railway lines that go through West Lothian would also be a sensible and realisable goal in support of achieving sustainable travel.
We need to encourage people back on to buses and out of their cars post Covid, but people cannot use public transport if their area is not served. Despite the takeover of the previously poor First Bus service by McGill’s, and the determination of McGill’s to drive up standards of reliability and confidence, the current state of limbo while it gets there is not helping anyone.
The lack of reliable bus services is having a huge impact on my constituents. People are worried about losing their jobs. They are missing health appointments, losing access to basic amenities and endlessly waiting for buses that simply do not turn up. Buses can bring freedom, choice and connection—we cannot afford to miss the bus on this one.
15:21