Sub-contracts save cash
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TAYSIDE Regional Council says its policy of giving smaller bus and coach operators an increasing role in rural areas has meant significant savings for the council over the past nine years, in which time 14 routes have been taken over by local companies.
In 1980 the annual cost to the council of subsidising the Dundee to Auchterhouse service, then operated by Northern Scottish, was in the region of £28,000.
Today the annual cost of providing a more frequent service between Auchterhouse and Downfield, feeding on to the profitable city service, is approximately £8,000.
Smaller savings were recently made in Angus, following the replacement of four services withdrawn by Northern Scottish which cost the council £50,000 a year. The new council services are estimated to cost less than £10,000 in a full year.
Public transport director Neil Townend said: "The experience gained by the regional council and those bus companies involved in operating on the council's behalf has been invaluable.
"It is to be hoped that this experience will enable the regional council to retain services which otherwise would be lost as a result of bus operators being expected by the Government to act commercially in the provision of bus services."