A tender fight in Glasgow
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ANOTHER traffic court battle is looming in Strathclyde where a Scottish Bus Group company is seeking authority to run three Glasgow city services.
Central Scottish has applied to run two cross-Glasgow routes from East Kilbride, one to Milton via the city centre, the other to Summerston via the Castlemilk housing scheme and the Clyde Tunnel, and a circular service through Castlemilk.
Strathclyde PTE started a Glasgow-East Kilbride service earlier this month. It was authorised after Central and the PTE lodged counter-applications to serve a new part of East Kilbride, and the Scottish Traffic Commissioners authorised both in the hope that the two operators would get together (CM, May 12).
In granting that service, and some night services into SBGserved surroundings of Glasgow, the Commissioners made clear that the days of considering operating territory to be sacrosanct had ended.
SBG executive John Whittle, who is responsible for services in Strathclyde, told CM that Central believed it could satisfy unserved markets in Glasgow, and that there was sufficient traffic to justify using some extra drivers and vehicles to run the new services.
He accepted that the new services raised implications on the future of co-ordinated services in Glasgow. Meetings had been held with SPTE in its roles as a bus operator and as a transport co-ordinator, but these had been unsuccessful in arriving at any agreement on the provision of new services.
There had been no communication from Strathclyde since the new service applications were published, but Mr Whittle anticipated that it would object.