Better Buses campaigners secured a huge victory on 17 October, when First Minister John Swinney announced that all buses in Scotland will be brought back into public control “through franchising and regulation” by 2031.
Now we are ramping up the pressure to make this a reality.
As part of the Better Buses National Coalition, we have re-launched our petition at the Scottish Parliament to ‘Accelerate the implementation of bus franchising powers’.
Scotland has the most complex and time-consuming bus franchising powers in the UK, which require local transport authorities to have their proposals approved by a so-called ‘independent panel’ convened by the Traffic Commissioner.
This is a completely unnecessary step that does not exist in England and Wales which will add up to a year onto what is already a lengthy process, as well as the significant risk that proposals are rejected.
In order to fulfil John Swinney’s pledge, it’s vital that the the Scottish Government acts quickly to simplify the bus franchising powers and empower and support all Scotland’s Regional Transport Partnerships to use them.
Our petition will be considered by the Scottish Parliament’s Petitions Committee on Thursday 5 November, 10am.
Please make sure you add your name so we can get as many signatures as possible before then.
Routemap to Better Buses in Scotland by 2031
We have submitted written evidence to the Scottish Parliament setting out the action necessary to ‘Accelerate the implementation of bus franchising powers’.
As part of this, we have created the ‘Routemap to Better Buses in Scotland by 2031‘ timeline graphic showing the urgent action needed to successfully deliver John Swinney’s pledge, including:
- Allocating the £4 million committed in the 2026-27 budget “to support local transport authorities to build business cases for local bus improvements through franchising” to SPT so it can continue work to deliver bus franchising across Strathclyde and provide a blueprint for other regions to follow.
- Amending the bus franchising powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to remove the independent panel and streamline the franchising process – we have drafted the necessary amendments here.
- Considering SPT’s other recommendations to improve the bus franchising process.
- Empowering and supporting Scotland’s other six Regional Transport Partnerships so they can begin their own Franchising Frameworks & Assessments for their regions.
