Glasgow's Moving!

Nicola Biggerstaff

Last month a report published by Centre for Cities came out in support of refranchising the Strathclyde public transport network, under the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). The report, Miles Better: improving public transport in the Glasgow City Region, details a three phase plan which, over the next twenty years, would create a more integrated public transport network including the buses, rail, and metro systems in Glasgow and the surrounding communities.

The report breaks down the changes necessary into three phases. Phase One, over a timescale of five years, involves the franchising of the bus network under SPT, with sufficient funding to be supported by the Scottish Government.

Phase Two, taking the project into its tenth year, would see agreed, longer term funding and governance agreements between the relevant authorities at SPT and the Scottish Government. They suggest that additional funding revenue could be raised through environmental charges, such as Low Emission Zone (LEZ) fines and congestion charges, as have been introduced in London.

The final third phase, over another ten years, would see the introduction of a gradual integration of rail services and train stations into the franchised network, under the control of SPT, the infrastructure for doing so already agreed during Phase Two. The report claims this will have additional benefits beyond fully integrated public transport in the area, in that it will also incentivise local housing and businesses to develop in areas with such effective transport and provide additional opportunities for revenue for said businesses through advertising and further opportunities to contribute to the local community in newly developing areas.

The report suggests that this strategy would increase the number of people in the Strathclyde region able to reach the city centre in thirty minutes or less (the number ‘well-connected residents’) by twenty five per cent, an increase of around 210,000 on top of the 900,000 already well-connected residents.

The first phase of this is already underway. As I reported back in October, Common Weal are now supporting Get Glasgow Moving’s Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign. Inspired by recent successes in Manchester, and the launching of similar campaigns all over the UK, this campaign is a once in a generation opportunity to bring the buses back into public control and give the local network a new lease of life.

After forty years of gradual, manufactured decline by private interests for the sake of profit following the Thatcher era of disenfranchisement, the campaign calls on SPT to use all the new powers granted to them under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019,to create a fully integrated, accessible and affordable network, funded by the Scottish Government.

The Centre for Cities report estimates that Glasgow’s economy is underperforming by over seven billion pounds a year, and that an insufficient public transport infrastructure is at least partly to blame for this, with an underperforming system reducing the number of workers able to connect to certain jobs across the city. It claims that this leads to the illusion of ‘a city smaller in effect than its population suggests’.

As we all know, an effective network provides a boost to local economies and cultural tourism. It makes the city more accessible for everyone and creates valuable links for local communities: between families and friends, workers and employment, the people and their city.

And these links have been broken by private bus companies. For too long now, we have been at the whim of private bus companies who do not run services in the interest of the communities they pass through, but in the interest of pocketing our proceeds for themselves, taking money and resource out of the local economy and community. And some of these companies are already gearing up to oppose the measure, making local support for a franchised bus network more crucial than ever.

This new campaign from Get Glasgow Moving is a once in a generation opportunity to improve our bus network and undo the damage left by brutal cuts to services and overinflated ticket prices. SPT are due to make their decision on the extent to which they will bring bus services under their control in March 2024, and will be engaged and communicating with stakeholders throughout the process.

Common Weal are proud to support Get Glasgow Moving’s Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign, to bring the local bus networks fully back into public ownership under Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). We urge them to take the report under serious advisement during the development of the Strathclyde Regional Bus Strategy, and we highly encourage our supporters and donors alike to get involved in the campaign. Please sign their petition here and spread the word.

We are also looking for volunteers in the Strathclyde region who may wish to help out with the campaign in their local communities later in the new year. To find out more, please get in touch at nicola@common.scot.