Labour MSP for East Lothian Iain Gray has launched a bill in the Scottish Parliament to regulate how bus services are delivered.
The Members’ Bill aims to give transport authorities greater power over how bus services are run, including a new franchising power to tender “quality contracts” for profitable and non-profitable routes together, without seeking ministers’ consent or having to “demonstrate market failure”. The Bill proposes a power for the Traffic Commissioner to penalise operators where franchise agreements are broken.
Iain Gray MSP, said:
““I am proud to launch my Bill proposal today and will now seek support from across the Parliament, to reflect the widespread concern about the regulation of bus services in Scotland
I speak with many constituents who are rightly angry when local bus services are cut, but feel powerless when councils tell them it’s down to a commercial decision by the operator. I have discussed my Bill at public meetings across Scotland, and bus users everywhere want to see more democratic and community control of bus services.
“My Bill aims to give more power to local transport authorities, by giving them a greater say in how services are delivered in their area beyond the most basic terms. At the moment, the system makes it too easy for operators to walk away from even those services they are paid to deliver, and when they do, it’s communities that suffer.
“Crucially, my bill would allow transport authorities to contract out commercial as well as non-commercial routes. Currently these are delivered almost entirely on the terms bus operators choose.
“Following recent bad experiences with bus services in my own East Lothian constituency, and several other areas across Scotland, I believe the time is right for this proposal. The current market-driven set-up is letting too many people down and this needs to change.
“There is a growing awareness that there are five times as many bus journeys as rail in Scotland, yet rail gets far more attention and much more public funding. Deregulation is not working for bus passengers, and the time has come to change things. There is widespread concern about the state of Scotland’s buses, and I can only hope the Scottish Government work constructively with me to ensure that this Bill can fix a broken system”
Barry Turner, Chair of the Rural East Lothian Bus Users campaigning group (RELBUS), said:
“’RELBUS, the Rural East Lothian Bus Users campaigning group, supports in principle Iain Gray’s proposed parliamentary bill on bus regulation.
“Based upon local experience we agree with the premise that current arrangements for the provision of commercial bus services are letting down some communities and that the unregulated market has failed to protect those who depend on local services.
“We see the benefits of the proposed bill as giving a degree of democratic control over what is a key public service, greater public involvement in service provision and improved networks with better integration of services.’