Chris Marshall: Is city's bus service on the road to ruin?

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 08:50

FOR years the story of Lothian Buses was that of growing passenger numbers, rising revenues and the belief that Edinburgh had the best bus company in the UK.

But just as it looked like nothing could go wrong . . . the wheels came off.

Earlier this year, the council-owned bus firm came back down to earth when figures showed it had posted its first operating loss in its 20-year history.

The 801,000 loss – a sharp fall on the 5.9m profit the company made in 2007 – spoke of a difficult year made all the more challenging by the city's ongoing tram works.

As buses return to Princes Street after the completion of work to the lay the Capital's first set of tram tracks, news has emerged of major routes being cut by bus operators across Scotland amid falling passengers numbers.

Rising unemployment caused by the recession has led to around one in every ten urban bus routes being cut, leaving local authorities questioning how to fund vital services for the elderly and vulnerable.

In Edinburgh, the council was forced to step in with a 500,000 bail out earlier this year when Lothian Buses announced plans to axe a host of loss-making services.

Seven routes – numbers 13, 18, 20, 24, 42, 63 and the 48/X48 Ratho service – were given a last-minute reprieve after being given a council subsidy.

The move led to a shake-up of the bus companies serving the city, with West Lothian-based E&M Horsburgh working in the Capital for the first time.

There were then further cuts to services in July when Lothian Buses announced revisions to the timetable, including night buses the N16, which runs from Leith Street to Torphin, and the N44 Balerno-Tranent service, which were axed between Sundays and Thursdays.

Earlier this month, First became the latest operator to announce it would be withdrawing services – this time the routes ran between West Lothian and Edinburgh. The cutbacks have led to a debate over the future of bus services and whether local authorities can continue to bankroll loss-making routes.

Lothian Buses, which is set to be merged with tram firm TIE as Transport Edinburgh Limited (TEL), is expected to face the added pressure of bailing out the tram project following the losses it is projected to make in its early years

That makes further cuts to bus services in the Capital more, not less, likely, at a time when the city's integrated public transport system should be entering a new phase of consolidation and growth.

Last year Lothian Buses blamed the economic slowdown after passenger numbers plunged to 111 million from a high of 114 million the previous year. It was the first fall in passenger numbers after nine years of successive growth.

The bus company, which began in its current form in 1988, has suffered falling passenger numbers as a result of the tram works, which have slowed traffic and diverted routes.

But Iain Coupar, Lothian Buses' marketing director, says the company is hopeful that passenger numbers and revenues are beginning to recover from the lows of the previous year.

"Because we offer a public service, we can't just decide to stop operating services," he says. "There are no plans at this moment in time to make any more cuts. We won't know the situation in terms of passenger numbers and revenue until the end of the year. Hopefully things will be better."

Edinburgh City Council has been forced to step in on a number of occasions during the past few years to provide subsidies for ailing services.

Following the latest round of cutbacks in July, however, campaigners warned that some areas of the city now risked being left completely isolated.

But council chiefs say they are investing heavily in the city's bus network.

Councillor Gordon Mackenzie, the city's transport leader, says: "We have a responsibility to offer accessible and affordable public transport, which is why this council is committing 1.5m this year to support bus services."

However, the problems being faced by Edinburgh are far from unique.

In Glasgow, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, which funds bus services, is reportedly set to spend an extra 500,000 next year in response to cuts made by the city's main operator, First.

And in Dundee and Stirling, around 10 per cent of bus networks are said to have been affected by withdrawn routes or reduced frequency.

Indeed, the cutbacks have even led to suggestions, denied by bus operators, that some companies are taking advantage of the system by scrapping commercially viable routes to then pick them up again later with the support of public funding.

In Edinburgh's case a good deal of uncertainty remains about the city's bus service and the how it will continue to operate once the trams are up and running. But after months of enforced exile on George Street, the city's fleet is at least now back in its original home.