Mcgill's Group Statement On Spt Bus Franchising Vote

McGill’s Group, the UK’s largest independent bus operator, has issued the following statement after Strathclyde Passenger Transport voted to pursue bus franchising.

Ralph Roberts, CEO of McGill’s Group, said:

“The bus users of Strathclyde consistently tell us that their number one issue in using buses is congestion, which affects service reliability, journey times and cost of travel.

“The biggest priority for SPT should be to push local authorities to manage their infrastructure under the powers they already have which will allow bus users to make more consistent, quicker and cheaper journeys.

“Under the status quo, private operators in Strathclyde have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in zero-emission buses.

“There are six times the number of zero-emission buses in Strathclyde than there is in Manchester so clearly, franchising is not the panacea that some people make it out to be.

“If SPT and local authorities had done their job in this regard over the last 20 years, bus use would have grown rather than declined. As it stands, a world-class bus system cannot operate on third-world infrastructure.

“Buses are the most popular form of public transport with high levels of customer satisfaction.

“According to the most recent Transport Scotland statistics, bus services across Scotland shared £51million in core funding from government for delivering 79% of public transport journeys. At the same time, rail services in Scotland received £1.4billion from the public purse for delivering only 16% of public transport journeys – perhaps indicating where problems lie.

“SPT needs to be very careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water in their quest for power. They claim that the cost of undertaking the franchising process to the point of implementation is estimated at up to £15million and we will be interested to see exactly how this figure is justified.

“McGill’s Group will be taking part in the consultation due to launch in April and will set out our position more fully at that point."

McGill's Buses