MSP Calls For 15 Bus Cut To Be Halted
Green MSP Ross Greer has asked for an urgent meeting with Glasgow Citybus bosses after the company announced that the 15 service, covering Bearsden & Milngavie, is to be scrapped by the end of June.
The service links Milngavie and Bearsden to the City Centre via Anniesland and Glasgow University. Just last month it was announced that the service would be reduced from every 40 minutes to every hour on weekdays but last week the company stated via tweeted that they were withdrawing the service completely after 29th June.
Ross Greer- who lives in Bearsden and regularly uses the service himself- had already raised a motion in Parliament criticising the reduction in service and had requested a meeting with Colin Craig, Chief Executive of Glasgow Citybus parent company West Coast Motors.
Greer, Scottish Green MSP for the West of Scotland, commented:
“The 15 is a lifeline to a lot of elderly and disabled people as well as young people, particularly students at Anniesland college and Glasgow University. Too often the assumption is made that everyone in Bearsden & Milngavie drives. Not only is this not the case, even if it were, we should be encouraging people to get out of their cars, take public transport an help us tackle the local air pollution problems we have. It was bad enough that the service was being reduced but to be withdrawn completely will be a disaster for many local residents.
“For as long as our buses are ran for profit by private companies, this will continue to happen. Public transport should be ran in the interests of the public. Publicly-owned Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, Scotland’s best bus service, is a great example of this. I’ll be urging West Coast Motors to reverse this decision and keep the lifeline service going but until we get broader reform of public transport, this will keep happening and we’ll never hit our targets for stopping the climate crisis.”