On 17 June, the Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn SNP announced plans for new Better Buses legislation within this parliamentary session. On Wednesday 2 September, we’re holding two events at the Parliament to tell him and other MSPs what this legislation must deliver.
Scotland Demands Better Buses Rally
outside the Scottish Parliament
Wednesday 2 September 2026, 1pm
We’re inviting bus passengers and MSPs from across Scotland to show support for our campaign by joining our Rally and Photo Opp outside the Parliament at 1pm. We’ll be joined by representatives from national organisations: Friends of the Earth Scotland, Poverty Alliance, STUC, Scottish Pensioners’ Forum and Living Rent, as well as regional Better Buses groups from Strathclyde, Grampian and Fife.
Better Buses Drop-in for MSPs
Room TG.24 and the Garden Lobby
Wednesday 2 September 2026, 1:30-2:30pm
The Rally will be followed by a Drop-in event for MSPs inside the Parliament, where there will be further opportunity for MSPs to discuss the action required to deliver Better Buses for communities across Scotland.
Please write to your MSPs to ask them to attend!
New Better Buses legislation must:
- be delivered in a timely fashion – not the 6+ years it took to enact/publish statutory guidance for the bus franchising powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.
- remain solely bus-focused (i.e. be a ‘Bus Services Bill’) – so it is not subsumed into a much larger Transport Bill, as this was the key issue causing delays and mistakes with the 2019 Act.
- correct all the mistakes made in the 2019 Act – specifically removing the unnecessary ‘independent panel’ part of the bus franchising approval process, which hands undue power over Scotland’s bus services to the Traffic Commissioner: an unelected official appointed by the UK Government! The Parliament’s former NZET Committee received compelling evidence explaining why the panel must be removed in October 2024 (we have drafted the necessary amendments that must be made).
- empower all of Scotland’s Regional Transport Partnerships to use the bus franchising powers – to remove inequalities and help deliver Better Buses across the country (currently only SPT, ZetTrans and SWestrans can).
