Question reference: S6W-26892
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 18 April 2024
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Current status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment was conducted regarding the impact of the £500 million funding for the Bus Partnership Fund.
Answer
The Bus Partnership Fund has so far delivered a number of projects for which Partnerships are currently undertaking monitoring and evaluation, with reporting once schemes have been in operation for a sufficient period of time.
Once complete, these will be collated to determine the impact that the funding has had to date. Initial reports from the Aberdeen City Centre bus gates are very positive with reduced bus journey times benefitting a significant number of passengers.
Other bus priority installed at signals to help buses get through them more quickly are also reporting improvements in journey times and reliability, with these having been implemented in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Oban and North Ayrshire. A number of studies were also funded which have identified further measures which will feed into the longer term public transport vision.
The Bus Partnership is one way in which we are delivering the Second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) recommendation of the provision of strategic bus priority measures. This included an assessment of the impact of strategic bus priority, the reporting of which can be found on Transport Scotland’s website - https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/strategy/strategic-transport-projects-review-2/ .