Meeting of the Parliament 26 June 2025
I thank Patrick Harvie for bringing this important motion to the chamber.
For the substantial Scottish Government investment that we make in Scotland’s bus services, we should be getting a far better city bus service in Glasgow. That is clear. Fares are too high and services are too sparse, particularly in the evenings, on Saturdays and—absolutely—on Sundays. Some places are bus deserts on a Sunday. However, we can do better. We need strategic investment in bus services. I believe that a franchising model, under powers given to local authorities and transport organisations from the Scottish Government, would do better. In Glasgow, that means co-ordination by SPT.
What are the issues in Glasgow? Ruchill, in my constituency, barely has a service running through it. The 90 service is thin gruel, quite frankly. The 8 is a valued service but does not exist from Springburn on a Sunday, and it is far reduced at nights and weekends as it runs through Summerston.
There is also the lack of a bus service through Kelvindale. I pick that example because it shows managed decline by bus companies. A few years ago, when First Glasgow decided to take out the Kelvindale part of the 4A service, which went from, I think, Broomhill through the west end and onwards through the city centre, Kelvindale was left without a bus service. Through the intervention of myself and others, SPT stepped in and the M4 service was put in place instead. Although it is far inferior, it is something. We championed that as a win, although it is not really a win—it is just that the situation is not as bad as it otherwise would have been.
Recently, I met First Glasgow to try to get it to reinstate a service through Kelvindale. It pointed out that running that service would not be economically viable—well, of course it is not. We have to look at the end-to-end journey in its entirety. If we break up a route into its component parts, no bus service will be economically viable, but it requires investment as a public service. That is what franchising and co-ordination are all about.
We have to accept that it will cost money. We need to ensure that there is a common purpose in the Parliament, because there needs to be the collective political will to make that investment. We are talking about Glasgow and the greater Glasgow area, but there also needs to be political will across the country. Colleagues elsewhere in the country may not champion the up to £80 million per year that the changes could cost. Let us be realistic about it: we do not have that money right now, but we have to find it.