Former Traffic Commissioner says councils 'lack imagination' in tackling Perthshire and Fife bus problems

A former Traffic Commissioner believes councils “lack imagination” in tackling bus delays amid problems with Stagecoach services in Perthshire and Fife.

Joan Aitken OBE, who served as Traffic Commissioner for Scotland from 2003 to 2019, says roadworks are a major problem for bus companies trying to meet timetable demands.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier, Ms Aitken called on councils to prioritise bus passengers in their decision making.

“What really bedevils buses running to time – and often to route – are roadworks,” she said.

“And from all my time as Traffic Commissioner I urged local authorities, or utilities, or the road works commissioner, to actually put buses way higher up the agenda.

“If you do have to interfere with a road that’s on a bus route – think bus, think all those passengers.”

‘Unimaginative and lazy’

The former ombudsman, who now sits on the board of campaign group Bus Users, was speaking about local authorities across Scotland as a whole in her remarks.

Stagecoach has raised roadworks as an issue in the delays to services across Fife and Tayside – like the controversial 39 route in the Carse of Gowrie.

“People are not being imaginative, people are being lazy, not thinking about the passengers on the bus,” said Ms Aitken.

“The bus passengers should be more respected by local authority roads departments, by trunk roads Scotland (Transport Scotland) and utilities.

“Roadworks and the road environment bedevils the sort of bus operation that Stagecoach or any bus operator or Traffic Commissioner (want).

“It is the road environment that frustrates good bus operating.

“And if you can have good bus operating where you can get a real flow of the buses then there is more chance of having frequent services.”

Council departments need to work together

The former Traffic Commissioner called on council officers to come out of their “silos” and use joined up thinking to help alleviate delays.

She believes planning departments are not working together to help make sure bus timetables run smoothly.

“You get decision making that doesn’t favour mass transport through bus use,” she warned.

“Don’t think about Stagecoach and its profits – people get sidelined by that sort of thinking, that’s nonsense.

“It doesn’t matter who owns the buses, if the road on which that bus depends is blocked or slowed that will block and slow the journey for those passengers.”

The Courier will publish the second part of our interview with Joan Aitken on Tuesday.