Politicians call for transport survey following bus cuts in Peeblesshire

Tweeddale West councillor Heather Anderson and MSP Christine Grahame (both SNP) have written to Scottish Borders Council leader Shona Haslam (Cons) to condemn the decision to axe £100,000 from subsidies to the 101/102 service, which resulted in a reduced timetable on the route.

Daytime journeys on the rural service, which connects Biggar, West Linton and Carlops with both Edinburgh and Dumfries; were saved by the South West of Scotland Transport Partnership.

But those needing evening travel will have to find other means of transport – as the two later journeys have been scrapped.

In their letter, Councillor Anderson and Ms Grahame said: “Many constituents have already been in touch with us because this impacts on their essential travel to work.”

The pair have also called for a public transport survey to help “clarify the scale and nature of the problems” Borders-wide.

The letter states: “SWestrans is thankfully retaining the 101/ 102 bus service with the same number of daytime journeys, but with the loss of the two evening journeys at 20.45 and 21.55.

“This effectively means that every resident of Tweeddale West now has to be home on the last bus at 7.30pm.

“There is no longer any public transport provision for any evening journeys between Dolphinton, West Linton, Carlops and Edinburgh. This is simply unacceptable to many of our constituents who require the later buses for essential travel.”

However, council bosses have defended the cuts. A spokesperson said: “The council has carried out regular bus consultation events across the Borders with bus users Scotland in recent years and will continue to work with partners in order to engage with the public.

“As part of its subsidised bus services review, the council aimed to make changes – with budgets tighter than ever – while minimising the impact on bus passengers, which we believe has been achieved by the new 101/102 timetable.

“Statistics from 2017 show that the 8.45pm service was used on average by less than five passengers per day travelling to West Linton and Carlops, and the 9.55pm service saw less than four passengers per day on average. The cost of continuing these two evening services alone would have been around £88,000 per year, representing a subsidy of around £30 per passenger which our review concluded was not a reasonable use of public funds.

“SBC believes the new 7.35pm service will provide some passengers who used the later evening services with an earlier option, having previously been no service between 6.35pm and 8.45pm.”