Greens highlight transport policies across central Scotland
Local campaigners and candidates from the Scottish Green Party were out in big numbers earlier this week at train stations across Central Scotland to highlight their policies on public transport provision, including the nationalisation of the railways, re-regulation of bus services, and the introduction of integrated ticketing throughout all forms of public transport and across all operators.
The Greens' transport plans would be focused around the need of communities, rather than in the interest of a multitude of different operators as is currently the case. SPT's website identifies over 60 bus companies that operate in the Strathclyde area. While many of these operators no doubt offer a decent service, the fragmented nature of the transport infrastructure can often make journeys difficult and costly. With timetabling issues and fare discrepancies often a problem. This can often be exacerbated when people require to use both bus and train services.
Following privitisation of the railways in the 1990s fares have risen sharply and are now well above European averages.
Kirsten Robb said:
"The cuts to bus services all over Central Scotland have had a big impact on peoples lives leaving too many communities with a limited service or none at all. The Scottish Green Party continues to support bus re-regulation and investment to ensure our communities are better served by public transport. Faster progress on integrated ticketing would also be far more convenient, meaning that a passenger only needs to buy one ticket for their journey, regardless of how many operators they use, or whether they are traveling by bus or train."
John Wilson added:
"Bringing the railways back into public ownership is extremely popular with the public and that was clearly evident talking to commuters today. The model of public ownership ensures that any profits generated are reinvested into the service rather than taken out to pay dividends. The East Coast Main Line was a perfect example of how public operated rail services can perform better than their private sector counterparts, at least until the Tory Government's privitisation agenda saw them pass it back to the private sector."