Make bus travel free, fast and accessible and bring buses into public or community ownership, alongside efforts to increase active travel and to reduce car use
Over 75% of public transport journeys are made by bus, and are especially vital for residents in low-income areas.
A key prerequisite for success is ensuring a high-quality service for the user, with frequency and comprehensive coverage of the system maintained and improved, alongside policies to discourage car use. For residents of rural and island communities, free travel could be extended to ferries, trains or community transport.
Experts are clear that to enable healthier, greener and fairer transport choices, a combination of carrots, as outlined above, and sticks is essential. Research commissioned by the Scottish Government from AECOM makes clear that some form of road user charging (whether congestion charging or other) is the only way to achieve substantial car-use reduction. Moreover, the research confirms that this can be done equitably and by accounting for different parts of Scotland. Apart from the benefits for emissions, congestion, and the many other external costs on society, this would provide considerable additional income for sustainable transport options.
Beyond reducing emissions by decreasing car trips, this policy would help to tackle poverty and inequality by making it easier for people to access leisure and employment opportunities, and by addressing isolation and loneliness. Reducing car traffic also reduces congestion, which boosts local economies, improves air quality and makes bus travel even more attractive. A report for Friends of the Earth Scotland found that major investment in public transport could almost double the number of direct jobs in the sector and support around 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in manufacturing and infrastructure over a 12-year period.
Currently, there is a gender divide in transport due to the division of household labour and caring responsibilities; men are more likely to have access to a car, while women are more likely to make multi-destination journeys. A reformed active travel and bus network should enable a diversity of journeys, including care-related trips which are disproportionately taken by women using buses.
Over 100 cities, more than half of them in Europe, have made all or some modes of their public transport free. Behavioural research confirms the effectiveness of free public transport in changing habits, and examples from Korean and European cities demonstrate how free bus travel has brought a range of benefits.
In Scotland, during the first year of extending the concessionary bus travel scheme to under 22s, over 50 million journeys were made by young people. This clearly shows that when cost is removed as a barrier, people use public transport, and this consideration should be central to changing transport behaviour. Public funds already cover more than half of every bus ticket in Scotland; 63% of bus operator revenues in Scotland in 2022/23 came from public funding through concessionary travel reimbursement, grants or supported services.
At just over £745m, the total investment needed to cover all operator revenue would be an increase of only £275m on the existing spend of £470m a year. By comparison the Scottish Government budget for 2025-26 is set to invest nearly £1.1 billion in maintaining and enhancing the trunk road network.
Public or community ownership of public transport operators would significantly improve the economics of supporting free bus travel. Public ownership is needed to enable affordable, accessible fully-integrated public transport planned and coordinated to meet the communities’ needs, using the franchising powers in the Transport Act 2019. Progress has been far too slow – these powers need to be simplified and supported, as is happening with the Buses Services Bill in England.
As first steps, concessionary travel could be expanded to under 25s, people in receipt of low-income social security payments and unpaid carers. Free bus trials could also be rolled out in two Scottish cities, as recommended by the Just Transition Commission in 2021. The £2 bus trial in England resulted in 35% of people taking more journeys by bus, and 49% of people aged 16 to 24 reported that the £2 bus fare cap had a positive or very positive impact on their living costs. In the recent trial to remove peak fares on ScotRail trains more than half the new train passengers normally drove a car for their journey, and the removal of peak train fares must continue.
For more information:
- On The Move, Friends of the Earth Scotland, 2023
- Can We Reduce Car Use Fairly? Just Transition Commission, 2023