NEW Glasgow City Council leader Ricky Bell has been confronted over the lack of night buses in the city, as he committed to meet with campaigners to discuss the issue.
Members of tenants’ union Living Rent attended Bell’s surgery in Govan on Saturday morning to demand action on improving late-night public transport across Glasgow.
During the encounter, Bell agreed to meet members of the union before the end of October to discuss their campaign, which includes calls for publicly owned bus services.
Campaigners handed the council leader a piece of paper asking him to commit to the meeting, with Bell ticking a box marked “yes”.
Living Rent has been campaigning for Glasgow to establish a publicly owned bus operator, with affordable night buses among the services it wants introduced.
The union is also calling for some of the money raised through Glasgow's forthcoming visitor levy to be used to fund night buses for people living and working in the city.
David, a member of Living Rent, told Clyde One: “As people living across Glasgow will know, night buses are few to non-existent.
“This puts many of our members and people across Glasgow at risk when finishing work or coming home from nights out.
“So we’re making sure that some of the revenues from the tourist tax are committed towards bringing a night bus that actually benefits the people who live in Glasgow.
“That is not just directed towards Destination Glasgow and making Glasgow a better place for tourism. Money that’s raised in Glasgow should be spent on people that live here.”
The meeting comes after research published by Living Rent, Get Glasgow Moving and Common Weal earlier this year found widespread dissatisfaction with Glasgow's bus network.
The report, previously covered by The National, surveyed more than 300 bus users, with 86% describing services as “bad” or “very bad”. More than half said buses were unreliable, frequently cancelled or consistently late.
Some respondents said a lack of reliable late-night services had forced them to turn down work shifts.
One Shettleston resident told the survey that after a night shift they faced a choice between waiting in the cold, walking home in the dark or paying for a taxi.
The report called on Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) to establish a publicly owned bus company, initially focusing on affordable night-time services.
It argued that public ownership would allow profits to be reinvested in services while helping maintain routes which may not be commercially profitable.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We are strongly supportive of greater public control of Glasgow's bus services.
"In line with the relevant legislation, Strathclyde Passenger Transport is the authority currently taking forward work to develop bus franchising for the Glasgow city region.
"Our staff have offered Strathclyde Passenger Transport assistance with the work that's needed on bus franchising.
“Night buses currently operate in Glasgow on Fridays and Saturdays and work is underway to improve this service.”
