Transport / Many routes to benefit from bus fare trial as cap set at £2
MORE details have emerged of a bus fare cap that is set to be trialled in Shetland.
The cap for single fares will be £2, meaning passengers on many routes should benefit from a cheaper trip on the bus.
The trial is to take place across the Highlands and Islands from the end of January and comes with £10 million of investment from the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Greens said the cap was secured by their MSPs as part of budget negotiations earlier this year.
But local councillor Moraig Lyall, who chairs Shetland’s transport partnership ZetTrans, said staff on the ground helped to secure funding for the scheme.
“Trialling a bus fare cap in one part of the country may have been at the behest of the Greens but a competitive process secured this for our area,” she said.
“Staff at ZetTrans and HiTrans worked together to submit a quality joint bid which successfully secured this funding for Shetland and the Highlands and Islands.”
Lyall said that capping bus fares at £2 will “allow those who live furthest from Lerwick on the bus network to benefit most, and offer the chance for others who don’t currently use the bus regularly to consider it as a viable option for affordably getting where they need to, whether for work, education, social events etcetera.”
Outside of Lerwick, only two fares in Shetland are below £2 at the moment – Lerwick to Gulberwick, which is £1.40, and Lerwick to Scalloway (£1.80).
After that there is Lerwick to Hamnavoe (£2), Toogs (£2.30), Sandwick (£2.30) and Weisdale (£2.30).
The highest mainland fare is Lerwick to North Roe at £3.80, while the largest fare overall is to Cullivoe in Yell, which includes a trip on the ferry from Toft.
Scottish Greens transport spokesperson Mark Ruskell MSP said he hoped the Highlands and Islands trial will be a success, and that the Scottish Government would roll it out to the rest of the country.
“Capping single bus fares at £2 will obviously bring huge savings for passengers, but it goes far wider than that,” he said.
“It will also open up new job and education opportunities, make services like GPs more accessible and boost local shops by leaving people with more money to spend at the end of their journey.”
People aged under 22 already get free travel on buses in Scotland, which was another Green initiative, in addition to folk over 60 and those who meet a disability criteria.
Last year two Shetland councillors – Green member Alex Armitage and the SNP’s Robbie McGregor – brought a motion forward calling on the SIC to explore a possible two-year trial of free bus fares.
However it lost out by one vote, with those against the motion feeling the time was not right because a review of the bus network was taking place.
It took a different tact from a motion Armitage and McGregor attempted to bring forward in 2022, which focused on the SIC exploring costs and feasibility of all free public transport, which included ferries as well as buses.
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