Plans for bus franchising are akin to the ferry fiasco according to the owners of one of the biggest public transport operators.

Sandy Easdale, co-owner of McGill’s Buses with his brother James, said both the ferry saga and bus franchising will cost the taxpayer due to spiralling costs.

SPT is exploring bus franchising for greater Glasgow, a move that McGill’s is opposed to and is actively seeking to prevent.

Franchising is intended to improve reliability and affordability by the authority setting the parameters for fares and timetables.

The Easdales however say it will cost hundreds of millions of pounds a year to implement.

Mr Easdale linked the ongoing delays to the Glen Sannox ferry, being built at Fergusons in Port Glasgow to plans that will affect his business.

He said: "The Scottish Government and its agencies are filled with people who have no idea about business or transport. That includes politicians and senior leadership at these agencies. They have consistently shown they don’t care about wasting hard-earned taxpayers’ money on projects that spiral out of control.”

New reports state parts from Glen Rosa, a second ferry being built, are being taken to complete Glen Sannox to get it into service.

Mr Easdale added: “What is proposed for bus franchising in Strathclyde is like a ferry fiasco on stilts. The same basic issues exist whereby politicians and quangos of unelected officials – all of whom have no business experience or knowledge of operating a bus company – propose spending huge sums of taxpayers' cash to fulfil their political fantasies rather than living in the real world.”

The bus boss said his firm considered Fergusons as a possible venture but decided it did not have the relevant expertise.

He said: “We looked at the yard when it was in administration and decided not to go ahead as we didn’t feel we had the sector expertise we needed to drive it forward.

“Others such as SNP politicians, Jim McColl (who did take it over) – and their aides in agencies such as Transport Scotland - clearly felt they knew better and we’re all now paying the price.”

Returning to franchising he added history is about to repeat itself.

He said: “In a private business such as ours, we’d look at how we could finance a project and if we couldn’t, what needed to change to make it a commercial reality.

“SPT has instead just ignored this £400m per annum cost and chosen to plough ahead regardless knowing that their councillors and officials will never be held to account for their own decisions.”