Have your say about public transport in Glasgow - including bus fares, Subway opening hours and more

The Glasgow Transport Strategy could decrease public transport fares and extend Subway opening hours in the next few years.

With 70 proposed policies, it is intended to tackle transport issues members of the public highlighted during the public conversation the council held in late 2020.

Now, following the release of the Draft Policy Framework, the timeframe in which the public can provide feedback has been extended.

The plan is an overall strategy for the city linked to others currently being developed that will determine the nature of Glasgow’s transport network in the coming years – the active travel strategy, Liveable Neighbourhoods and the City Centre Transformation Plan.

The policies in the overall Glasgow Transport Strategy set out the principles that will guide decision making on the city’s transport system but also the basic goals the council will set for Glasgow over the remainder of the 2020s.  

The huge range of policies covers everything from how to design local neighbourhoods around the needs of people rather than vehicles, air quality, road safety, the subway, parking, the use of e-scooters and how to get to school.

Grassroots public transport campaign Get Glasgow Moving (GGM) has been demanding many of the improvements proposed in the strategy for years, including lower fees and a universal smart-card.

Ellie Harrison, volunteer campaigner at GGM said: "We need to plan and coordinate the public transport network to work together as a whole, so that bus, train and Subway work together in harmony to get people where they need to go as quickly and efficiently as possible.

"This can only be done by regulating the bus network to plan routes and timetables in the public interest, and roll-out fully integrated and affordable ticketing.

"The GTS must commit to using the powers in the Transport Act 2019 to achieve this.

"The cost of public transport is a major issue.

"In order to shift all journeys onto sustainable modes by 2030, not only do we need to deliver this fully-integrated, world-class service, we need to massively reduce the cost of fares for local and regional journeys."

Based on the first-round feedback, the framework suggests that the council will aim to, among others, integrate a single smart-card for travel in the city, linking Queen Street and Central Station with a tunnel into a Glasgow Metro scheme and improving the licensing policies of taxis and private hire cars.

It also mentions plans to encourage SPT to extend the opening hours of Subway, encourage the Scottish Government to change legislation to enable the use of e-scooters, work with SPT, bus and train operators to provide affordable fares on public transport and improve fast and reliable public transport connections to Glasgow Airport.

With around a third of carbon emissions coming from vehicles, there is inevitably a focus on how the fight against climate change can be supported by changes to how people move about Glasgow.  A considerable shift to more sustainable forms of transport such as walking, wheeling and cycling is seen as essential.

But encouraging growth in the use of electric and other kinds of low carbon vehicles for personal journeys, public transport and the movement of goods is also considered vital.

The strategy also seeks to ensure transport plays its part in tackling poverty, improving health and reducing inequalities by ensuring transport options meet the needs of all, including people with disabilities, women, young people, older people and people from ethnic minorities.

The strategy recognises the huge importance of transport to the on-going economic success of the city, but also supports the city’s plan to create Liveable Neighbourhoods across the city where the services the people rely upon are easily available through short journeys by walking, wheeling or cycling.

Further detailed plans on how the network may look in practice are due to be delivered in 2022, but Councillor Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, said she sees the general goals and related policies as a blueprint for the city’s direction of travel.

Anna said: “How we travel in Glasgow in future will have a major bearing on the city’s effort to deal with the climate crisis.

"Over half of the journeys undertaken in the city by car are three kilometres or less and that clearly causes issues with congestion, air quality and road safety.

"Prioritising active travel and use of public transport will address all these concerns.

“By reconfiguring our neighbourhoods to make the things that matter to people easy to reach by walking, wheeling or cycling we can make substantial in-roads to the carbon impact of our transport system.

“But we must also make sure that improving our transport system goes hand in hand with addressing the many issues the city has faced for many years such as poverty, poor health and inequality.

The strategy also outlines steps the council aims to implement to help Glasgow reach net-zero carbon city status by 2030, including reducing parking in the city centre, improving walking, wheeling and cycling connections to public transport, promoting car-sharing and using energy-efficient street lights.

After public feedback, the plan will move to the next stage, which includes creating the Spatial Delivery Framework in 2022.

The consultation had been set to last from October 18 to November 26 but following a Glasgow City Council meeting, the deadline has been extended until December 3.

During the public conversation, the majority of the criticism focused on the unreliability and poor connectivity of public transport, as well as high costs and the lack of safe places to cycle in Glasgow.

The council says they are committed to solving these problems and helping the city reach net-zero status by 2030 with the new strategy.

Until December 3, anyone can have their say via an online survey on the council's website or by attending online discussion sessions.

Anna added: “Glasgow has a strong transport system already, but it could be better.  

"The policies set out our draft transport strategy point to a positive way forward that will not only support our economy but also improve the places we live, work and spent time in."

"Transport affects all our lives, so policies in this strategy matter to everyone in Glasgow.  

"I hope people can find the time to contribute to on-going discussion that is central to the way we improve and reshape our city’s transport network."

People can respond to the consultation on the Glasgow Transport Strategy at http://www.glasgow.gov.uk