Well, congratulations are in order for the Scottish Government.........erm, not.
Not so long after an increase in train fares, the bus fares have followed suit, and in some cases as high as 28%.
In case anyone in West of Scotland hadn't noticed, First Group have a practical monopoly on the trains, and a share with Stagecoach on the buses. In fact, First Group practically run all the buses in the Glasgow and Lanarkshire areas, with Stagecoach commanding a large portion on the Ayrshire market.
No doubt, any criticism will be blamed on Westminster by Salmond, but that argument is wearing thin. The Scottish Government have managed to find plenty of money for Edinburgh's trams. They've also managed to fund a nice, new shiny bridge as well. Oh, that's Edinburgh as well. Leaving the arguments aside, most people outside of Edinburgh will wonder why so much is being spent in the capital, yet everyone else is paying more for less services.
True, they are funding a refurbishment of the Underground in Glasgow, but that is of little use to most people who work in the city.
The SNP seem to have a problem with Transport.
Perhaps Keith Brown could explain.......
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteBut in general I think the problem is the level of subsidies lavished on public transport that's been the problem - running near-empty busses around, paradoxically in the name of green transport, for example - and the chickens had to come home to roost eventually.
It reminds me a bit of the higher education debate. The UK's aim of getting 50% of the population into degree-level courses was never going to be sustainable in the long term, either academically or financially. Hence the whole tuition fees debacle, and in a different way it's all happening now as regards public transport. People are effectively having to pay more for something that the taxpayer could never really afford anyway.
Of course, Scotland and the rest of the UK aren't precisely the same as regards their approach to these problems, but the basic issue is essentially the same, and of course how Holyrood tackles the student funding problem in the long term is a huge question.
Something had to/has to give.