East Lothian MSP seeks to improve bus services
East Lothian’s MSP Iain Gray has announced his intention to bring a Private Members Bill to the Scottish Parliament to strengthen regulation of the bus industry.
The Bill will give local authorities the power to “bundle” profitable and loss making but socially desirable routes together, to be tendered in a “quality contract” or franchise.
These contracts would include a framework to specify routes, timetables, fares and vehicle quality. They would also allow the performance of bus companies to be more directly monitored.
This move follows on from a previous attempt by former MSP Charlie Gordon to legislate which fell when Labour was the only party willing to support the measure.
Mr Gray’s decision to pursue this issue was also informed by last year’s local bus crisis when First withdrew several vital local services at very short notice leaving several large communities at risk of having no bus service at all.
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Weather for Musselburgh
Sunday 26 May 2013
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