Welcome to the first EBUG Members Bulletin of 2026.
The big events of the year are the Scottish Budget and the Scottish Parliament election.
- Our Secretary wrote a commentary for Transform Scotland on November’s bus debate at the Scottish Parliament. It suggests the debate showed current MSPs lack insight into how to tackle declining bus use across Scotland; relying instead on formulaic repetition of their particular party’s policies. As the Scottish budget has to be agreed early in 2026, this does not bode well. However, there is still enough time for the 2026 party manifestos to include more effective ideas.
We encourage all EBUG members to write to their MSPs, MPs and contacts they may have to parties standing in the Scottish Election in May with some or all of EBUG’s ‘election asks’. You can find contact details here – please share any responses you receive with us. - At least two other organisations have published ‘election asks’ which call for much of the same priorities as EBUG: the Confederation of Passenger Transport in Scotland and SESTRAN, the statutory Regional Transport Partnership for SE Scotland.
- On Christmas Eve, the BBC ran an article on congestion and bus journey times, featuring Lothian Buses route 38 in Edinburgh. The research which ‘inspired’ the article is available here.
- EBUG highlighted one consequence of extended bus journey time at West Maitland Street, where local services no longer call, because of the impact on schedules.
- We were pleased that a team of designers working on Edinburgh Council’s ‘Barnton Connections’ project asked for EBUG’s opinion on initial designs. This is a walking and cycling project with limited impact on buses. Nevertheless it is encouraging that the team sought out bus user views, which are often overlooked in Council projects.
- December’s meeting of the EBUG committee discussed the number of bus stops across Edinburgh that are closed, with some ‘temporarily’ closed for very long periods; for example northbound on George IV Bridge. We decided to ask all EBUG members to tell us about bus stops that have been removed, permanently or temporarily for more than a month. Please tell us about bus stop closures near you using this short form.
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EBUG is pleased to see public transport patronage increasing to 130m per year across Lothian’s bus and tram network.
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On 13th January the Scottish Government published their 2026/27 budget proposals with £226m capital spend planned for “active travel and bus infrastructure” – details are lacking. In the revenue section, £528.3m are announced for Concessionary Fares and Bus Services in 2026/27 (up from £472.7m); while welcome, free bus travel is of no use if there are no bus services (bus operators are reimbursed with only 55% of the full fare) or the buses are delayed (by insufficient bus lanes and bus lane enforcement). Look out for further EBUG commentary on the Scottish Budget next week on our website news section.
Your EBUG Committee
David Begg (right) with Edinburgh Bus Users Group chair Harald Tobermann and his dog Buster