Buses must be brought under control, franchising ‘insufficient’ to deliver change needed

Transport campaigners have welcomed the First Minister’s pledge to improve bus services but urged the Government to go further and pursue full public ownership of buses, alongside franchising. 

Without a change in ownership, introducing franchising of buses means that the private firms who have overseen the decline in bus services will continue to extract profit from this vital public service, campaigners argue. 

Franchising can still leave rural communities underserved where routes are not seen as commercially viable and private operators do not bid for the route. It is reliant on competitive bidding to run routes so if no companies come forward the system could fail, or require the authority to commit to long-term subsidy to the private sector to make it work.

Bus subsidy of £499 million

Scottish national and local government subsidies to bus companies totalled £499 million in 2024/2025 including concessionary fares for over 65’s and under 22’s, as well as councils paying private firms to deliver socially necessary routes. There have been extra handouts to cover increasing fuel costs this year as well. 

Despite relying on increasing public subsidy to deliver bus services, Firstbus and Stagecoach Group made annual profits over £100million each in recent years. 

Meanwhile, publicly controlled Lothian Buses often returns dividends to the Council, has increasing passenger numbers and was recently rated fourth in Time Out’s global ranking on public transport.

Transport for London has long operated on a franchise but has recently recognised the need to take the vital next step and announced the creation of a publicly owned bus company alongside this which it says will give it “greater control over how services are run, enabling it to boost reliability and safety while crucially reinvesting profits to further improve the capital’s transport network.”

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s senior transport campaigner Emily Donnelly said:

“Bringing the vital public service of bus networks under greater public control is common sense. John Swinney’s welcome pledge to bring in franchising is a move in the right direction and is testament to all those communities and campaigners who have been pressing for improved bus services for many years. 

“Franchising must be delivered alongside public ownership to ensure that the regulated bus services are improved and routes are restored, particularly in rural areas.”

“The current bus system has turned bus owners into billionaires with profits and subsidies going straight into private pockets rather than being reinvested in improving services for passengers. The shrieking from certain bus companies just highlights how easy they have it for so long, effectively having absolute power to cut routes and leave communities stranded on a whim.”

“Buses are an essential service, so politicians should be focused on ensuring they meet public need and bring down climate pollution, not just how much profit can be creamed off the top.” 

“On the whole franchising is insufficient for the positive transformation needed. The only way to deliver genuinely affordable, available, reliable and sustainable public transport run for communities not for commercial interests is by bringing bus services into public ownership.”