More than 50 contracts are to be scrapped as part of a radical plan to restructure bus services across the region. And officials have warned that from the summer “some existing routes will not be served by bus” while “on-demand” services could be introduced.
Officials at transport partnership SWestrans are currently developing a new public transport network. SWestrans lead officer Douglas Kirkpatrick told Friday’s board meeting that the new model would be a three tier approach – with community run services at the top, supported and council run services in the middle and commercial at the bottom.
The end goal is to develop “a more sustainable way of delivering public transport across the region”. At present, SWestrans financially supports 57 bus routes across Dumfries and Galloway, with contracts for 55 of them due to end in August this year.
It had been hoped to extend these contracts until March 2024 to give more time for replacement deals to be worked up as well as time for “some development of the new public transport model”.
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