Meeting of the Parliament 12 November 2025
When it comes to buses, the Scottish Greens deliver. By granting under-22s free bus travel, we have seen hundreds of thousands more young people using Scotland’s networks. It has saved them money, allowed them to make the most of the opportunities in their local areas and beyond and reduced their climate impact.
However, there is still so much more to do to improve bus travel. Of vital importance is the provision of reliable and joined-up rural and island bus services, ensuring that no community is cut off from the network and that everyone can choose public transport.
I have seen superb work by communities to create their own bus services. The Finderne Development Trust in Moray runs a service that takes people from rural areas to Forres. It not only meets local people’s needs but provides a social aspect, connecting people as they meet one another on the bus.
Badenoch and Strathspey Community ConnXions, which is based in Aviemore, goes even further. I joined its service on a shopping day, when it brought people from all around the Strath to the local shops. Its users enthusiastically told me that they had been on a picnic outing to Loch Morlich the day before. Not only does its service take people to events but it organises its own opportunities for social interaction, with buses as the basis. Those examples demonstrate that, when buses are community run, they are more than just transport; they build community and place.
Although it is great to see communities coming together, it cannot and should not be left up to motivated volunteers to run critical public infrastructure. The Scottish Government has a responsibility to play its part in delivering buses for rural communities. In its new climate change plan, it lists free bus travel for under-22s and over-60s as a key method of cutting transport emissions, but it makes no commitment to go any further. That is not good enough. We need a Government commitment to provide reliable services, especially in rural areas. If buses do not turn up, people cannot get on.
Private operators have shown time and again that they cannot be trusted to deliver reliable rural bus networks. Services are withdrawn at short notice, fares rise well above inflation every year and timetables are all but meaningless—I say that from personal experience. That makes it hard for people to leave their car at home and opt for the bus to commute to work or to an appointment. The only way that we can resolve that is by bringing buses back into public hands. As has been shown by Lothian Buses, doing so can drive revenue for local authorities and, at the same time, deliver better services for local people. Rural councils are starting to take that opportunity. Borders Council has seen a 70 per cent increase in the number of bus passengers since taking services in-house, which shows what Highland Council can expect now that it has taken 17 routes back into public ownership.
We also need to think about how we deliver better transport for islanders. It is great that under-22s can now travel for free on the interisland ferries in Orkney and Shetland, but those communities face what the Government acknowledges are significantly higher transport costs compared with those paid by folk living in urban areas.
In Shetland, the Scottish Greens propose a two-year pilot of free bus travel for all Shetlanders. Such a move would address the inequality that islanders face while providing a boost to their economy, and it would give us a robust pilot to understand the impact of free bus travel. That is the kind of thinking that we need from the Scottish Government. The Scottish Greens stand ready to work with it to build on what we have already achieved and to deliver even fairer and more sustainable travel for all.
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