Are Highland bus fare increases undermining environmental efforts?
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Stagecoach plans to implement fare rises of around 10 per cent from this weekend.
The bus company announced the planned rises – to take effect from Sunday – earlier this month, blaming increased operating costs and a failure of passenger numbers to return to pre-Covid levels.
Highland Green MSP Ariane Burgess wants to encourage everyone who is entitled to free bus travel to register for it.
She said councils had been informed fares will increase by an average of 10.2 per cent – meaning on individual routes the rises could be higher.
Stagecoach also intends to withdraw all child multi-ride tickets and only have child singles available for those who do not have a free bus pass.
All under-22s are now entitled to free bus travel but must have a pass proving their eligibility.
Across Scotland, more than 50 million free journeys have been undertaken using the free bus pass for under-22s since they were introduced in January 2022.
Ms Burgess said: “While I am delighted that so many young people in the Highlands and Islands are using free bus travel, it’s dismaying to see bus companies like Stagecoach make fares ever more expensive.”
She said that the firm operated at a profit of £72.7m in the last financial year and reported £1.17bn of revenue growth and added: “I am very proud that the Scottish Greens have introduced free bus travel and that so many are benefitting. It is opening up our communities and our country, while helping our planet.
"It is a measure of the impact we are having with Scottish Greens in government and a big step towards a more sustainable and better connected future.
“With free bus travel in place for young people, and the scrapping of peak rail fares on the way, we are working to ensure that public transport is the best and most cost-effective option, but this work is being undermined by repeated and unsustainable cost increases.
"I would encourage those who have not yet done so to visit Freebus.scot and register for their card today and urge local authorities to make use of the £46m Community Bus Fund available over the course of this parliament to explore running their own bus services.”
Highland Council has already begun running its own buses on a number of routes as part of a pilot project, with plans for possible expansion.
