Update from Better Buses for Strathclyde
Thanks to everyone who came to our People’s Rally for Public Control at Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) offices on Friday 15th March!
It was a huge day for the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign, and a massive win in terms of SPT agreeing to commence work on franchising (regulation of the private bus companies) and develop a business case for a new publicly-owned bus company for Strathclyde.
They would never have done this without mass public pressure, so thanks to everyone who helped: the 10,290 people who’ve signed our petition so far, and everyone who turned out to our rallies and events (in the rain!), circulated leaflets and stickers and supported us in other ways.
But – unfortunately – we cannot stop here.
We still have a long fight ahead of us to make sure these plans come to fruition. Our first task is to stop SPT’s proposal to sign a so-called ‘Bus Service Improvement Partnership’ (BSIP) with the private bus companies in the ‘medium term’.
This would be a massive waste of time and money, and would lock us into the present failing deregulated system for years to come. It could take 1-2 years and cost £1.5 million to establish a BSIP, and cost up to £250k annually to run, for ‘a minimum of 5 years’.
A BSIP will only serve to delay plans for franchising and setting up our new public operator, and – by giving private bus companies such a loud voice at the table – it risks sabotaging these all together.
The next step is SPT’s public consultation on the proposals approved by their board on Friday. This will run for 6 weeks from around 5 April 2024. During this time we will be asking all our supporters to respond to say no to the BSIP and demand that SPT focuses all its resources on accelerating the complex process of taking our region’s buses back into public control.
Please make sure you sign our petition and tick ‘Yes, keep me informed via email’ to receive our updates:
betterbusescampaign.uk 