Lochaber's Public Transport Crisis 2024

The Scotsman

09/10/2024

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Sarah Riddle, I'm proud to be the chair of Lochaber Chamber of Commerce, also

00:14of our own local business, and here desperately to talk about the need for an integrated transport

00:18plan. I think when they work, it's amazing. And we did have a good timetable that was

00:24frequent. We get people to doctors, hospitals, works, and activities as well. But what we've

00:30seen in recent times is that we have had to cut, because of the congestion, the number

00:35of routes available. And that has a serious impact on people making their appointments,

00:39making their work, and feels like we've gone backwards with our bus transport, which is a

00:44vital part of roads, cars being off the road, and people being able to be employed in many instances.

00:52It is a shame to say, but yes, many people are being forced to

00:56tie in a lift, or not actually make shifts as well. And that does worry me.

01:04We are seeing these bottlenecks becoming greater, so the Malig road congestion,

01:08and we are seeing that road being congested well over an hour of a peak time. That is every day,

01:14it's not just the weekend now. When you see buses snarled up out as far as

01:19Torlundie and beyond, that's a hell of a journey to consider. And it's putting people off. It's

01:25making people not make appointments that are booked. If you speak to many of our members,

01:29hairdressers, etc, they're being stood up for appointments. So loss of earnings is significant.

01:41Yes, my name is John Curry. I'm a Visitor Service Manager here

01:45for the National Trust for Scotland at the Visitor Centre here. We're in the middle of,

01:49or towards the end of the peak of our busiest ever year, which we didn't think we could ever

01:54get much busier after last year and the experience after COVID. People are still coming,

01:58and the draw for Glenfinnan is increasing year on year. We're doing what we can to encourage people

02:04to come to Glenfinnan by more sustainable means. So on the bus service, via Shield buses,

02:11or using the train service, but we just don't have the right amount of trains coming at the

02:17right times for people to see the steam train, which is the main draw for most people to come

02:22here, and to get away in a reasonable time. And then the bus service is often

02:27full because a lot of the days we just get a little mini bus coming by, or there might not be

02:31quite the number of buses coming through to accommodate the amount of people that want to

02:34get onto it. But also a lot of people just don't actually realise what the other options are. So

02:39we're trying to encourage that but it's difficult. Most people who come to Glenfinnan this afternoon

02:44actually are going to end up leaving disappointed because they're not getting in to park here.

02:49So most people that seem to come here in the afternoon certainly are having to drive on by

02:53with their cars because we're just at capacity all day long. So it's an incredibly busy place.

02:59So my name's David Phillips, I'm the Manager and Director of Shield Buses.

03:02I think what you've got in this environment is a beautiful part of the world, it's a place where

03:06people want to come to, it's a place where people want to have a holiday, relax and have a great

03:11time. And obviously we, as a business, meet that need basically. We have a responsibility to our

03:18regulator, the traffic commissioner, and we have a responsibility to our business to ensure that

03:24We have a responsibility to our regulator, the traffic commissioner,

03:28which means that our services have to operate to the scheduled timetable.

03:32And unfortunately, times of the year that can be very problematic in and around Lochaber. And

03:38really what we're struggling with is out of date infrastructure that really needs to be challenged

03:44and tackled and put right for the future. The A830, the A82 are the key sort of problems.

03:51But we have infrastructure issues with the Bannaby swing bridge as well too,

03:55and the ongoing traffic calming measures in and around the town as well. So when you put them

04:00all together and then add in sort of the summer peak time traffic as well, it makes it a very

04:05challenging environment to operate. So in simple terms, we operate a 30 minute service. The traffic

04:11delays have got so much over the years that that timetable is unsustainable. It really needs a

04:17fourth bus in which to operate. We don't have the luxury of the ability to, through council funding,

04:23to operate that fourth bus. So therefore we have to look at the existing route and how we can save

04:28time to operate. Really what we're looking for here is consistency of operation of services.

04:34So therefore when we get these pinch points really affecting us, we'd like the ability to

04:38keep running those times consistently. And that's really what we want to see, the ambition to

04:42actually give us consistent running time through the town, which allows us to run the services as

04:47and what we want and not have to make sacrifices like we've seen here. I genuinely believe this can

04:52be solved if we're together, if there's a collaboration with business, with government,

04:57and we look for solutions that can work. We understand the bottlenecks. Also I won't

05:04hesitate to say when I do travel, as I do a lot in Norway etc, and I see some of the solutions

05:08there that are built, that they are coping with similar infrastructures as ours, but they're

05:14creative in terms of how they have built bridges, tunnels etc. It can be done, but it needs a team

05:19effort and a collaborative effort by everybody, business and government, to pull together.

Lochaber's Public Transport Crisis 2024

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