Reduced Dumfries to Edinburgh bus service 'reluctantly' agreed
- Published
Scottish Borders Council cut its funding for the bus service by £100,000
A transport body has "very reluctantly" agreed to a journey reduction on a bus service at the centre of a campaign to ensure its survival.
The Dumfries to Edinburgh route will see two weekday journeys removed from its timetable in both directions.
Scottish Borders Council - which cut its support by £100,000 - said the new service represented an improvement.
However, south of Scotland MSP Colin Smyth described the change as "frustrating" and "short-sighted".
The 101/102 Stagecoach bus service has been at the centre of a campaign to ensure it continued since it emerged SBC did not intend to continue its financial contribution of £135,000.
Although it starts and ends outside the region, it has a number of stops in the Borders.
A series of options were considered with one where the local authority cut its share of funding to £35,000 eventually being accepted by the South West of Scotland Transport Partnership (SWestrans).
It means that services from Monday to Saturday between Edinburgh and Dumfries will be cut from six to four in both directions.
Two Sunday services will be retained but at different times when the new timetable starts in August.
The service runs between Dumfries and Edinburgh with stops in the Borders
Andrew Wood, who chairs the SWestrans board, said: "Although we are satisfied that we can still provide a regular service, with the four through journeys per day to Edinburgh from Dumfries, we are extremely disappointed that the funding is not available to continue with this service as it stands now.
"Unfortunately, it is just not sustainable to carry on whilst plugging funding gaps, therefore we can only do so much with the limited funds which are available to us and we hope that our travellers will understand that we have done all that we can."
Gordon Edgar, SBC's executive member for roads and infrastructure, said it had aimed to minimise the impact on bus passengers when it carried out the review of its subsidised services.
'Consistent timetable'
"We believe the new timetable actually improves the service with additional daytime and evening services," he said.
Council leader Shona Haslam said it would provide a "consistent new timetable" while saving £100,000 to Borders council tax payers.
South of Scotland MSP Mr Smyth described the outcome as "deeply disappointing" and said the cuts could have been avoided with a more flexible approach by the council.
"If you reduce services, then it simply becomes less attractive to passengers and that will put the whole service at risk," he warned.