Spt “Grossly Misleading Public” Over Bus Franchising

Family bus company owners Sandy and James Easdale have called out SPT for grossly misleading the public and parliament over their plans to ‘seize’ their company, McGill’s, through flawed legislation.

Sandy Easdale said: “We now have the figures to show that this plan would cost the taxpayer £400m a year as opposed to the £85m that SPT is claiming. This is another ferry debacle in the making but is many times bigger.”

James Easdale added: “What I don’t understand is that the First Minister Humza Yousaf has already said that he won’t pay the bill for this so it will fall on the local councils who make up SPT. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought these councils have all but run out of cash?”

On March 15, SPT announced that work should start on franchising by using newly activated powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. McGill’s and other private bus companies have been given just six weeks to respond to SPT’s consultation with detailed analysis of the plans.

However, it was many months ago that SPT commissioned global transport consultants Systra to conduct a scoping study that examined the current bus networks in Strathclyde.

SPT has stated that the cost of putting the bus routes out to franchising, with no guarantee that current business owners would be successful, would be £45 - £80millon per year.

McGill’s financial and transport executives have now blown a hole in these figures.

McGill’s CEO Ralph Roberts is one of the most experienced transport operators in the UK and a former President of The Confederation of Passenger Transport. Despite the crippling timetable for forensically analysing SPT’s projections, he and his team have reached the conclusion that it will cost an additional £400m per annum to put into place SPT’s wish list.

Ralph Roberts said: “The more you dig into SPT’s franchising wish list, the more you see the iceberg below what they are revealing.

“At a high level they predict that the franchised network would deliver up to an additional 40m bus journeys per annum and would cost up to £85m per annum so that would cost a straightforward £2 per ride. This is broadly in line with current costs so no huge surprise.

“However, when you realise that the franchising wish list beyond the additional buses is going to cost significantly more money, you must then adjust the cost base of the entire operation.

“The SPT wish list beyond more services includes things like a more efficient network, better punctuality and reliability, increased affordability (lower fares), sustainability and environmental improvements, buses available when people want them and where people want them, a common network identity, integrated ticketing, fares capping region-wide, improved safety and security, better public acceptability and a common customer charter.”

Mr Roberts added: “For example, increasing the efficiency of the network involves spending on infrastructure to the tune of £1.5billion over the whole of Strathclyde, £500m of which is in the Glasgow area alone.

“To increase the affordability of the network – i.e. reduce fares – it costs more again and on it goes. The fares reduction alone would be in the order of £150m to £200m in cost per annum.

“Painting buses to all be the same colour would be an £8million cost for example.

“Totting up all of the qualitative costs on top of the network expansion, plus the amortisation of the huge one-off costs, means that a £400m additional cost per annum is actually a conservative estimate.

“Of course, Systra had two and half years to model this and we have had two and a half weeks so far.”

Sandy Easdale added: “SPT they say they want "a world-class bus network. They can only achieve that if they first build world-class roads and public transport infrastructure. Fixing congestion is a major part of the equation. Have you looked at our streets? You can’t move for congestion a lot of the time. It’s a daily nightmare for bus drivers and their passengers. How do you expect buses to move efficiently?

“Who in SPT has actually been responsible at a senior level for operating buses? I’m not even sure whether SPT understands what they are trying to achieve here.”

James Easdale said: “It’s interesting that the consultants Systra have been involved with world-class transport systems like the Dubai Metro but we have to remember that is a brand new modern city with unlimited space for roads and rail. Our cities, especially Glasgow, are very old with narrow roads which once were used by horses and carts. You can’t drop a super modern transport system into an antiquated road system, unless you spend billions, and Scotland just doesn’t have the additional money.”

Mr Roberts concluded: “If you want 300 more buses in Glasgow, do what Edinburgh did and close down the heavily subsidised suburban rail network and you will see significantly reduced fares and hundreds more buses all at no cost to the taxpayer.”