Scotland: rail comes first
Page 18
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McGILL'S BUS SERVICE, of Barrhead, is considering whether .t1 appeal against the Scottish Traffic Commissioners' refusal of its bil to run a stage service from Barrhead to Glasgow, but the Scottisl Bus Group has already lodged two similar applications.
In a reserved decision (CM, they are satisfied that to do s January 30), the Commissioners would be against the wider put said there was no doubt that the lic interest.
proposed service from Auchenback housing estate, in Barrhead, to Glasgow city centre would be of considerable benefit to travellers living in the estate.
But the Commissioners, in a two-to-one majority decision, felt that the likely abstraction of traffic from the Barrhead-Glasgow diesel rail service would put its future at risk, and they felt that the wider interest of the rail passengers must prevail, but have virtually invited McGill to contest the decision.
They accepted that the McGill service would save passengers the inconvenience of making a separate journey to Barrhead station, and that it would serve other points not served by train, although many were served by SBG-owned Western SMT.
McGill's service would be ruled out by Strathclyde Regional Council's public transport policy, but it was the wider consideration of public interest which the Commissioners had to take into account, they said.
They were more concerned about the apparent conflict between the 1968 Transport Act, which charged Strathclyde PTE with providing a properly integrated and efficient public transport system and the more liberal philosophy of the 1980 Act which obliges the Commissioners to grant licences unless
While the benefit to Aucher .back residents could not b disputed, if McGill were grante the licence, the risks to other are by no means clear, they saic
It was no secret that the ra link was under review, and a though that review had still t bear fruit, the Commissionel said that they must accept thr around £50,000 would be lost 1 BR if the bus service wasstarte
McGill managing director Go don McGill told CM on Monde that he was considering whethr to appeal against the decisiol but would wait until he has see a transcript of the Commi, sioners' decision.
In the meantime, Wester SMT, which withdrew its objel tion to the application, ha lodged its own proposal for a Auchenback-Glasgow servic via East Paisley and the dye Tunnel, and for a service 13( tween Auchenback and Polk housing scheme in South We Glasgow. Strathclyde PT wanted McGill to shorten its se vice to run over the latter route.