Glasgow failure
Page 6
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THE GREATER Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive admits the services it runs are bad and need improving. In a major discussion document — Change and Challenge — the Executive adds: "It is increasingly difficult and sometimes virtually impossible for people to find the buses and trains they need."
The document admits that bus and train services in Glasgow and surrounding areas are not up to scratch. "Without adequate transport, at convenient times and at a price he can afford, a person is likely to find his quality of life impoverished," says the report.
Deficiencies in the transport service generally resulted from many years of operating with strictly limited budgets and a "low priority in social policy." There was no disagreement on the need for improvement in reliability, co-ordination ' and integration of services.
Requirement was so obvious that "a programme of relatively uncontroversial importance could occupy the PTE for at least the first decade of its existence.
Main improvements covered by the PTE report include additional "Interlink" train-bus services — such as those already in operation at East Kilbride and Johnstone.
The report also calls for priority measures for improvMg reliability and providing express bus services to outlying housing schemes.
A spokesman for PTE said that although bus services could be erratic they were more reliable now in the Glasgow area than they had been for the _past 10 years. The number of breakdowns had been halved with the introduction of a more modern bus fleet.