End the failure of privatised buses in Scotland

Like a lot of people, buses are essential for me to get around day to day.  Everyone should have access to affordable and reliable public transport, but Scotland is being failed by an overpriced and fragmented private bus network.

Buses were privatised by Thatcher four decades ago, resulting in us now having to pay twice - once for a ticket on the bus itself, but then again through taxes to subsidise the essential services that private bus companies are not otherwise interested in running. 

Last week Scottish Greens co-leader and Glasgow MSP Patrick Harvie led a debate in Parliament where he and I both called for a high quality publicly-owned bus service for Strathclyde.

In the region I represent you can see the problems of fragmented and privatised bus services very clearly. 

Cameron is an 89 year old constituent of mine in Skelmorlie. He needs to travel to Crosshouse Hospital regularly. That requires four buses each way. Eight buses for one round trip is ridiculous. And for anyone in a similar position who doesn’t get free bus travel, a day ticket wouldn’t even be possible because the services are operated by different companies.

Bringing all buses back into public ownership in Scotland is the only route forward. Not only would we have the power to put passengers first, building a system that works for its users and not for profit, but we could cap fares and protect vital services.

Public ownership is already working. In Edinburgh, council-owned Lothian Buses delivers the best bus service in the UK, and has returned £36 million to city funds. 

The Scottish Greens secured free bus travel for under-22s a few years ago and since then young people have taken 225 million free journeys. 

I know of bus services across the country which have been saved from the axe or expanded because of the passenger increase driven by young people with our free bus passes. That’s a win for whole communities, not just those under 22.

We need more bold policies like that if we’re to help people with the cost of living and tackle the climate crisis. Private car use is on the up, meaning more emissions and pollution. People need a cheap and easy alternative which lets them keep the car at home, if they own one at all. Those without access to a car just need some way of being able to get around.

Letting the failure of privatised buses continue will just result in more cars on the road during a climate emergency, and more isolation for those without a car.

Publicly owned buses across Scotland would be transformational for our economy, for social justice, and for public health. It’s time to end the forty year long Thatcherite experiment with privatisation and bring our public transport back under public control.

Photo used under Creative Commons 2.0. Credit to user km30192002