Tuesday 23-09-2025 - 15:41

Are you sick of having to pay different prices for different buses?

Are you sick of not being able to get on the subway because you bought a pricey bus return ticket?

Do you ever travel and see how great the public transport is in different cities across the country, Europe and world??

Why can’t we have simple and affordable public transport???

We are supporting the Better Buses for Strathclyde, a campaign to take our buses back into public control. This would allow SPT (our cities transport authority) to plan bus routes that serve our communities needs and connect with trains, ferries and the subway. They could also cut fares and deliver one simple, affordable ticket across all transport modes. Buses are a large part of our students’ daily lives (and not just because we are neighbours with the bus station)! The majority of our students get to university everyday by bus and we know this can create a significant cost. It would benefit our students and everyone in the community to have simple and affordable buses.

Have you ever been to Manchester or London?

In Manchester, the Bee Network is the public transport network by Transport for Greater Manchester and makes it easy for you to use trams, buses and even bikes all through the same system and powered by the same network. In London, you can tap on and off of the underground, buses and trains with your phone. It is so simple, affordable and better for the environment!!

Having public control of the buses, like in these cities, means we can stop private bus companies hiking up fares and cutting services, despite receiving millions in public subsidies every year. It is also confusing to having multiple bus companies like McGill’s, First Bus and West Coast Motors, all charging different fares, being unable to use your day pass for all and even having two number 4 buses going through the city centre but on completely different routes!!!

Although many cities in England and all of Wales are going through the process of bus franchising (the process of bringing buses into public ownership), the Scottish Government make this extremely difficult to do.

So how can you support?

Sign the petition to the Scottish Parliament to accelerate the implementation of bus franchising powers:

https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2116?fbclid=PARlRTSAM3mfhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp8M2fF7L4XkdoH5UkxLkYqgHgsuTuWSVaPJ1D8Gs62i2Am73_xqdl8kS2dG2_aem_3On5Qf--joUIGuPjDvOaeA

Follow Better Buses for Strathclyde on social media and keep up with their campaign: https://www.instagram.com/betterbusesspt/

You can always contact any of your Full Time Officers at:

Tom Tom (Student President): president@GCUstudents.co.uk
Chinaenyenwa Ugo (Vice President SHLS): VP.SHLS@GCUstudents.co.uk
Eilidh Stewart (Vice President GSBS): VP.GSBS@GCUstudents.co.uk
Hamza Siddiqi (Vice President SSE): VP.SSE@GCUstudents.co.uk