Making the £60m Bus Infrastructure Fund deliver for passengers

Bus Project Manager Stacey O’Flaherty responds to the draft Scottish Budget 2026-2027, setting out why this presents a major opportunity to deliver visible improvements for bus passengers across Scotland.

We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment of £60 million for the Bus Infrastructure Fund (BIF) in the 2026-27 Budget, trebling the size of last year’s fund.

Buses account for the vast majority of public transport journeys in Scotland, and the evidence is clear: when buses are given priority on our roads, services become faster, more reliable, and more attractive to new users. This investment presents a real opportunity to deliver improvements that passengers can see and feel in their day-to-day journeys.

One of the strengths of this fund is its clear, one-year focus. While longer-term certainty will always be important, a defined funding window creates momentum and urgency. It encourages early decisions, swift delivery and visible outcomes, rather than funding being spread too thinly or delayed by long lead-in times.

At Transform Scotland, our Life in the Bus Lane project – which we launched last year – showed strong public support for bus priority and provided clear evidence of where investment can have the greatest impact. The research highlighted that targeted measures which help buses move more freely through congestion are consistently associated with improved reliability, higher passenger satisfaction and greater confidence in bus travel.

To maximise its impact, we must see these funds directly supporting bus priority on our roads – delivering faster, more reliable journeys for passengers and making better use of existing bus networks.

Our key recommendations included:

– prioritising investment in bus lanes, bus gates and junction priority to reduce journey times,
– ensuring existing and new priority measures are properly enforced so they deliver real benefits,
– setting out clear, route-based delivery plans through regional bus partnerships,
– improving the passenger experience alongside priority measures, including better bus stops, information and safety.

We’ve seen in the past that large, long-term funding commitments without a clear delivery focus can struggle to translate into on-street change. By contrast, a focused programme with a defined timeframe has the potential to deliver tangible improvements quickly, building public confidence and demonstrating what works.

The priority now should be to ensure this funding delivers measurable improvements to bus journey times and reliability. If that happens, the benefits for passengers, communities and the wider transport system will be clear – and it will strengthen the case for sustained investment in future years.

This is a chance to turn policy intent into progress – and it’s one we should seize.