Today I decided to try and find out who gets what out of the 'Bus Service Operator's Grant' funding from Transport Scotland whatdotheyknow.com/request/bus_se… via @whatdotheyknow
I'd also like to see where the Green Bus Fund money has gone whatdotheyknow.com/request/green_…
Ta-da! £16.1M awarded over 7 years and has funded 361 buses.
Sounds good? For comparison, the 2017-18 Motorway and Trunk Road budget is £967 million for a single year. 420 years of Green Bus funding = 1 year of Motorways Funding...
Sounds good? For comparison, the 2017-18 Motorway and Trunk Road budget is £967 million for a single year. 420 years of Green Bus funding = 1 year of Motorways Funding...
Or, expressed another way, 1 year of Motorway & Trunk Road funding would buy Scotland ~20,400 low emissions buses
The Green Bus Fund is now open to all operators of buses, but unsurprisingly it's the big operators who've made most use out of it
50% of the Funding has gone to Lothian Buses and 80% of the buses funded have been shared between First (West Lothian and Glasgow mainly) and Lothian.
In case you're wondering about the disparity between numbers of buses funded and amount granted, they operators aren't always claiming for total cost of a bus, some times it's just a contribution towards cost.
The Scottish Government's 2017-18 buses budget is £254M. 20% goes on support for bus services (Green Bus Fund, Bus Service Operators Grants), 80% goes on concessionary fares and a rounding error goes on smart card schemes
Of the 20% that goes on Support, the Green Bus Fund is the only capital support provided, and that's £2M per annum (or <1% of the bus funding) - almost the entirety goes on revenue funding; the BSOG (fuel costs) and Concessionary travel
Scottish Transport policy can best be summarised as "trains for a few and roads for all"
Yes a lot of money is spent on railways, but rail use in Scotland is heavily concentrated in the central belt, as have been the big investment schemes.
Basically, we could quite easily have top notch public transport and active transport in Scotland if we were to take a meaningful bite out of Motrway & Trunk Road funding
Given the Motorway and Trunk Roads budget busts inflation many times over in a time of austerity, there's no reason the same can't happen for buses, cycling, local rail schemes, transport integration etc. Wider and faster roads benefit those that don't really need it
I'm back to this thread as I got the numbers for the BSOG - the Bus Service Operator Grants. Basically this is the Scottish Government revenue funding for bus services, paid as a fuel subsidy at a rate per vehicle miles travelled
In last 3 years, £156.3M was paid out by Transport Scotland in BSOGs, this goes to any bus operator offering a public service, including community groups, council transport for elderly/disabled etc.
Unsurprisingly, a majority went to just 2 operators through their various subsidiary groups; 57% to First and Stagecoach. Lothian got 12% (for context, Lothian carries 25% of all bus passenger journeys made in the whole of Scotland)
So anyway, just 4 companies get more than 3/4 of all the bus subsidy in Scotland, with more than half going to arguably some of the worst/lacklustre service providers!
