Meeting of the Parliament 12 November 2025
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in the debate. Public transport is one of the most important issues to my constituents, and bus services are the most common source of complaint or concern, especially in rural areas.
I imagine that this will be as much of a shock to the Scottish Greens as it was to me, but I actually find points of agreement with their motion on the issue. They are quite correct to say
“that communities across Scotland deserve affordable, accessible and reliable bus services”.
At that point, unfortunately, our views diverge. They return to their safe space of demanding more free stuff that is paid for out of rising Government spending funded by ever-higher taxes on Scots, whereas I believe that the solutions lie in supporting the market to operate more effectively and that, if Scotland is going to offer young people the privilege of unlimited free bus travel at the taxpayers’ expense, there should be serious consequences for abusing that privilege. I await with interest the Scottish Government’s introducing legislation to address that matter.
The motion is a classic example of how the Scottish Greens approach policy: they call for lots of nice-sounding stuff and leave the practicalities to somebody else. An example is free bus travel for under-22s, which the Greens are now saying should be expanded. In principle, there is a lot to like. Giving young people the opportunity to travel to and from education or work and to visit more distant friends and family without the cost of bus fare is not a bad idea. However, it comes with a cost, not only in the troubling increase in antisocial behaviour both on buses and in bus stations, but in the other improvements to services that are not made because funds have been directed to subsidise free bus travel. Every policy comes with a trade-off, and it seems that we are sacrificing funding support for the basics in order to support and expand giveaways such as free bus travel.
Far too often in recent years, I have dealt with reports of antisocial behaviour by young people that is deterring other bus users from travelling. In Kilmarnock, antisocial behaviour in the bus station by young people, many of whom travel from outside the town, has been such an issue that it has required on-going interventions by Police Scotland and East Ayrshire Council. Time and again, I hear from constituents who feel unsafe using the bus station and avoid it after dark. That is not easy for anyone who commutes to and from work in the winter months.
Of course, antisocial behaviour is not the only issue with bus services. Although we often talk of public transport as though it is a single entity, a brief look at the bus and train timetables would tell us that that is not the case. That is not to mention the lack of joined-up infrastructure more generally. We know that the provision of good public transport infrastructure not only encourages people out of their cars but actually improves public health, as people choose to walk or cycle from the bus stop. Nevertheless, we continue to see an inconsistent approach to ensuring that key transport facilities and routes align with each other.