COMMUNITY-OWNED bus services across Glasgow and the West of Scotland are weighing up the decision to charge £2 for a single journey under the new fare cap.
When First Minister John Swinney announced last week that bus fares across the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) area will be capped at £2 for single journeys from Monday, it was unclear which companies would opt in to the voluntary scheme.
Since then, bus operators McGill’s, First Bus Glasgow, Stagecoach, Citylink, and McColl’s have all confirmed they will participate.
Community-owned bus services will also be able to take part following discussions between the Community Transport Association (CTA) and Transport Scotland.
David Kelly, Scotland director and head of policy and campaigns at the CTA, told the Sunday National that the organisation had spoken to Transport Scotland about the plans to ensure community-owned buses were properly considered.
“We had some conversations with Transport Scotland shortly after the Holyrood election, just to discuss their plans, how they were developing, and to explain to them how it might or could impact on the community transport sector, and just to make sure that community-owned bus services were going to be properly considered as part of their plans,” he said.
“For some of our members, it’s a really great opportunity to provide cheaper fares for passengers to hopefully get more passengers on to their services.”
Not every community transport operator is expected to participate.
Some operators had opted out of the existing £2 fare pilot in the Highlands because of the bureaucracy and administration involved.
Community transport services are often run by small charities and community groups, meaning they do not have the same administrative capacity as larger operators such as First Bus, Stagecoach and McGill’s.
“Because all of our members of the Community Transport Association are local charities and community groups, they are often much smaller organisations,” said Kelly.
“They’re all non-profit, and they don’t necessarily have the same capacity as First Bus or Stagecoach or McGill’s to administer and be part of schemes like this.”
Some community-owned services will not be directly affected by the new cap because they already charge less than £2 for shorter journeys.
But for those that do participate, the CTA hopes cheaper fares could encourage more people to use community-run buses.
The new cap will be part of a wider change of how passengers pay for bus transport across Scotland.
First Bus has made more changes to ticketing across Glasgow and the surrounding areas, which started on September 2.
The operator has scrapped return tickets, while family day tickets, adult 6pm tickets, and adult and child airport tickets have also been scrapped.
Kelly said the community services offer something different from conventional commercial operators, with decisions about routes, timetables and vehicles being made around the needs of local communities.
He said: “A number of our members actually replaced bus services that may have been run by a commercial bus operator, but they withdrew the service because they didn’t think it was commercially viable or there wasn’t enough profit in it for them to remain interested.
“And in some of those instances, we’ve actually seen that the community-owned bus has managed to increase passenger numbers versus the previous service.”
Unlike commercial operators, community-owned buses are run by local charities or community groups, with revenue retained within the service rather than being distributed to shareholders.
Kelly said: “Profit from the service isn’t being extracted to deliver returns for shareholders but is actually being retained in the local community to make that bus service better – all of the fare revenue is going back into those bus services and because it’s being delivered by a community group or a local charity, it’s something that’s really responsive to local needs.
“The people who live in that community live and breathe the work that they do, and so they can make changes, whether it’s to the timetable or the frequency or the nature of the vehicle, to meet local needs, and so that’s something that we see really valued by local people.”
But the sector already faces financial pressures, with community transport organisations relying on a mixture of council grants, independent funding, contracts, fares, donations and fundraising.
Kelly described the funding as a “patchwork quilt”, with operators also facing rising costs for labour, fuel and vehicles.
He said the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland should continue to monitor how smaller operators are able to participate in the scheme.
“We’d really like to see the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland keeping a close eye on that to make sure that smaller – as well as non-profit operators – are able to be part of the cap and continue being part of the cap,” he said.
The exact number of community-owned services that will participate is not yet known, with the CTA expecting a clearer picture once the scheme begins on Monday.
The £2 cap could make bus travel more affordable for passengers across Glasgow and the west of Scotland, while giving community operators another opportunity to attract passengers.
