East lothian MSP Iain Gray launches Bus Regulation Bill

Disaster was averted when Pencaitland & other rural towns were threatened with loss of public transport as First Bus withdrew services. A new Bill from MSP Iain Gray wants to avoid events like this happening again.

A new Bus Regulation (Scotland) Bill, championed by East Lothian’s very own Iain Gray MSP (he worked as a bus conductor when he was a student), aims to help make it easier for local councils to manage the tendering of bus routes.

You can read the proposals for the Bill in full by viewing (or downloading) this document.

Iain Gray’s Members’ Bill aims to give transport authorities greater power over how bus services are run, including a new franchising power to tender contracts for profitable and non-profitable routes together, without seeking ministers’ consent or having to “demonstrate market failure”. The Bill proposes a power for the Traffic Commissioner to penalise operators where franchise agreements are broken.

The proposal is now out for consultation until the end of August and is being distributed to constituents, community and other interest groups, as well as bus industry bodies and operators.