Transform Scotland warns on flagship Bus Partnership Fund<\/h5>\n

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Plans to reallocate road space on parts of the motorway network around Glasgow to high-occupancy vehicles such as buses have made little progress<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n

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\nThe Scottish Government\u2019s commitment to investing over \u00a3500m in bus priority infrastructure has yet to be fully realised, according to a report by Transform Scotland.<\/p>\n

The Bus Partnership Fund was launched in 2019 to invest in bus priority measures on local and trunk roads. The fund has allocated \u00a325.8m for appraisals, business cases, and small-scale interventions, known as \u2018quick wins\u2019. However, Transform Scotland reports that no substantive infrastructure has been funded yet.<\/p>\n

Transport Scotland temporarily paused work on the Bus Partnership Fund in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but announced the Bus Priority Rapid Deployment Fund, which supported local authorities in responding to congestion. This included temporary bus lanes and gates, with \u00a310m drawn from the Bus Partnership Fund.<\/p>\n

As the Bus Partnership Fund is currently closed for applications, the bulk of the funding may be spent on the major projects which have already received preliminary funding. Projects in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh have received funding for preparatory work, including evidence for bus-only streets, bus lanes, and traffic lights. However, major projects have yet to enter the consultation phase.<\/p>\n

The Bus Partnership Fund is getting spent currently at less than \u00a39m annually<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funding allocated so far is being spent on a combination of \u2018quick win\u2019 projects and preparatory appraisals and development work,\u201d said Transform Scotland. \u201cRepresenting 5-10% of the total available, this might be considered to be a fairly typical spend profile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the lobby group also reports that plans to reallocate road space on parts of the motorway network around Glasgow to high-occupancy vehicles such as buses have made little progress. The first phase of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review, recommended reallocation of road space on the M8, M77, and M80, but this has not happened as yet.<\/p>\n

Transform Scotland suggests that without a heavyweight \u2018champion\u2019, or \u2018champions\u2019, it is possible that the project may slip off the radar. The lack of progress in planning to reallocate road space around Glasgow contrasts with the \u00a3500m investment in bus priority infrastructure, which has seen some progress but is still off target.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks increasingly unlikely that the goal of investing over \u00a3500m in improved bus priority is going to be met in the short or medium term, although it may be achievable within the lifetime of the next Scottish Parliament,\u201d said Chris Day, Transform Scotland\u2019s policy advisor.<\/p>\n

He admitted the Scottish Government\u2019s plans were ambitious, particularly given the lengthy development and consultation phases of major projects. Day continued: \u201cThe challenge for scheme promoters and their allies is dealing with the opposition that inevitably arises when specific plans are published. The Bus Partnership Fund is getting spent currently at less than \u00a39m annually, whereas the original plan implied that it would be spent in five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The post \u2018Scotland may miss bus infrastructure target\u2019<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Transform Scotland warns on flagship Bus Partnership Fund \u00a0Plans to reallocate road space on parts of the motorway network around Glasgow to high-occupancy vehicles such as buses have made little progress\u2019 \u00a0 The Scottish Government\u2019s commitment to investing over \u00a3500m in bus priority infrastructure has yet to be fully realised, according to a report by Transform Scotland. The Bus Partnership…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}