6 January 2009
Immediate release

MURRAY DEMANDS BETTER BUS SERVICES FOR DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY

Elaine Murray MSP is disappointed that Tory, SNP and Lib Dem MSPs have rejected Labour’s proposed Regulation of Bus Services (Scotland) Bill. The bill, put forward by Scottish Labour's Transport Spokesman Charlie Gordon, fell as it failed to gain cross party support in the Scottish Parlimanet.

Elaine Murray said: “The bus service in Dumfries and Galloway is far too limited and patchy. If we as a nation are serious about reducing emissions we need to get people out of cars and onto public transport. This is never going to happen in our region unless our bus network is dramatically improved.”

Elaine Murray says that Tory, SNP and Lib Dem MSPs have “let down the people of our region” by rejecting the proposal to bring bus services under greater local council control.

She said: “Many of our more rural bus routes will simply not carry sufficient numbers to make them very profitable. This is why the current bus franchise system is letting rural areas like Dumfries and Galloway down – there just isn’t the incentive for private companies to run good, regular services.

“This Bill would have made a real difference in Dumfries and Galloway as it would have allowed the Council to step in and regulate services by putting franchises for local bus services out to tender. We would have greater control over bus routes and the frequency of service. By adopting a model similar to that used on the railways and introducing an element of cross-subsidy from more profitable services, we could improve less well used routes like those to rural parts of Dumfries and Galloway.”

The proposed Bill would also have extended free bus travel to people on the lower rate of Disability Living Allowance and would have allowed bus passes to be used on Community Transport vehicles.

Elaine said: “This would have helped pensioners in Annandale and Eskdale and would have brought income for the Annandale and Eskdale Transport Initiative at a time when the Council is removing financial support to them

“This Bill would have given Dumfries and Galloway better and more accessible bus services. By failing to support it, the other political parties have let down the people of our region.”

ENDS

CONTACT – ANDREW MACKENZIE 07769206856

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Regulation of Bus Services (Scotland) Bill was proposed by Labour’s Transport Spokesman Charlie Gordon. It fell because it did not get cross party support – only Labour MSPs supported it. For such a bill to succeed it must be supported by at least two of the main parties at Holyrood.

2. Municipal and nationalised bus operators outside London were abolished by the 1985 Transport Act, which made market forces the main provider of bus services.

The Scottish Parliament, in its 2001 Transport Act, gave councils powers to regulate bus services and standards on single routes, through Statutory Quality Partnerships (SQPs) and on local networks of routes, through Statutory Quality Contracts (SQCs); to date, no SQP or SQC has been established.

The proposed Regulation of Bus Services Bill would make SQCs easier to implement giving local authorities value for money options to respond to local citizens' aspirations for better local bus services and to account for their decisions about them.

There would still be competition, as rival operators compete for public tenders but some battlegrounds would move from on the road to off the road.