South of Scotland MSP and Scottish Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson, Jim Hume, has recently launched a campaign to save bus services from cuts and dramatic changes to the funding mechanism made by the SNP adminstration at Holyrood.
In April, Bus Service Operators suffered cuts of 17.5% and received 14.4 pence per in-service kilometre instead of 41.2 pence per litre. The Bus Service Operators Grant is paid to community and commercial bus operators to keep fares down and run services which might not be commercially viable otherwise.
Jim Hume said:
“This is bread and butter stuff which the SNP have failed to get right. Making cuts to this grant with no provision for plugging the hole will have a damaging impact on both the service operator and the passenger.
At a time when we’re trying to convince people to use public transport more, the last thing the SNP should be doing is forcing bus companies to hike up prices.The SNP had the opportunity to use the extra funding made available from Westminster, but this hasn’t happened.
I am writing to over 170 bus operators in Scotland to identify the extent of the impact of these cuts to their service provision.
We are now taking our campaign to the people of Scotland, asking them to sign our online petition which demands the SNP use the extra money made available by the coalition government to protect bus services in Scotland.”
Scottish Liberal Democrats are encouraging bus use in order to reduce congestion, link up local communities and reduce carbon emissions.
“The devil is in the detail on this one. If the SNP think people will simply let these cuts lie and let day-to-day public transport costs go up, they can think again.”
- The SNP cut the Bus Service Operators Grant from £60.8 million to £53.3 million – 17.5% – in the April budget.
- The funding mechanism for BSOG was also changed from ‘pence per litre’ to ‘pence per in-service litre’.
Full details of the campaign can be found at http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/saveourbuses
Hume launches campaign on bus services
South of Scotland MSP and Scottish Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson, Jim Hume, has recently launched a campaign to save bus services from cuts and dramatic changes to the funding mechanism made by the SNP adminstration at Holyrood.
In April, Bus Service Operators suffered cuts of 17.5% and received 14.4 pence per in-service kilometre instead of 41.2 pence per litre. The Bus Service Operators Grant is paid to community and commercial bus operators to keep fares down and run services which might not be commercially viable otherwise.
Jim Hume said:
Scottish Liberal Democrats are encouraging bus use in order to reduce congestion, link up local communities and reduce carbon emissions.
Full details of the campaign can be found at http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/saveourbuses