Colin Howden, director of Transform Scotland, said:
“It’s deeply disappointing that no funds were found for reinstating the Bus Partnership Fund. Installing bus priority on the roads is a cheap and quick way to incentivise people to switch from the private car to public transport. The overall transport budget yet again increases significantly so it’s pretty poor that no new funds were found to support the mode of transport used disproportionately by those on lowest incomes.
“Support for bus services falls steeply in the budget (by 9%) so that will make it more difficult for bus operators to provide services. So let’s just hope that there are some services left for all the country’s 2.3 million concessionary fare users to travel on.
“More encouraging is reference to the commencement of plans to replace the ScotRail inter-city rail fleet. The government needs to get a move on here as its own rail decarbonisation plan promises the removal of diesel trains from the ScotRail network by 2035. And, of course, while the budget does include a specific commitment to the construction of new road capacity on the A9, the rail commitment is only for “commencing plans” for new trains.
“It looks as if the budget for the healthiest modes of transport — walking, wheeling and cycling — has been maintained at similar levels as last year. However, given the opacity of the budget document, we’ll have to wait to see more information before we can give an informed view here. Whatever is the value of the investment in active travel, it’s certainly less than half of the Government’s previous commitment to commit 10% of the overall transport budget into active travel.”
Colin Howden has also written a more detailed preliminary commentary in a Bluesky thread.
