MAJOR UPDATES!

Hello! I hope everyone is having a good weekend and we have some news! Recently I told everyone I had contacted SPT and would also contact our local elected government officials and with that said I have received a reply from SPT. EMAIL FROM SPT: "Dear Mr McTaggart, I refer to your recent communication in relation to the commercial bus service changes as proposed and operated by Stagecoach (Western Buses). From the outset I should explain that Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) remit is to provide socially necessary bus services where and when the commercial bus market has failed to do so and its role is limited in that it has no legal influence to direct the provision of commercial bus services, rather decisions regarding this are solely that of private companies. When an operator intimates its intension to withdraw or vary a commercial service, SPT carries out a review of the service level, provided by the residual network, within effected communities, with adequacy measured against SPT’s adopted guidelines on acceptable levels of public transport provision. SPT is unable to provide financial subsidy for a service which competes with existing commercial services, as the subsidised service may very well detract passengers and revenue from the former, thereby jeopardising its viability. In such cases, SPT would be open to legal challenge resulting from breaches to competition legislation. Stagecoach has intimated that it has concluded its public consultation and subsequently advised SPT of its intention to seek a service change review date of Sunday 17 September 2017, additional information on these proposals can be gathered from their website, which I have highlighted for convenience below: https://www.stagecoachbus.com/service-updates/serviceupdatesarticle?SituationId=ID-31/07/2017-15:47:30:288 Consequently a network review is currently underway to assess any gaps in network resulting from Stagecoach’s proposals and along with passenger usage data, this will assist in providing a full picture of areas where action may be required. I hope you can take some comfort from the fact that SPT is investigating fully, transport provision in the area and is exploring every available avenue within the current regulatory regime. Regards Frank Rennie SPT Network Planning Team Leader" So SPT are looking into it at least so it isn't all bad news and hopefully they see that we need these services. On another note I also contacted Alan Brown (MP) and Jeane Freeman (MSP) and am currently awaiting a response but I do have some good news. I contacted The Cumnock Chronicle to see if we could make people aware of this and unexpectedly the petition was front page! View it here: http://www.cumnockchronicle.com/news/15448901.Petition_against_bus_cuts/ So far at the time of this update we have 184 supporters and I know everyone has things they need to do but if you could take a few minutes to share this on social media pages and tell friends and family about this then please do because the more people who object to these changes and sign this petition the more stagecoach will listen to us and reconsider. That is all the news I have at the moment but will update you all as soon as I get any news! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!