Why are Glasgow’s buses so bad?

A short rant written whilst waiting for a bus in sub-zero temperatures.

Bus in Glasgow around Christmas.

“A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure."

This quote, although apparently never said by Margaret Thatcher, does sounds like something she might have said. It is memorably cruel, a merciless assault on the idea of the common good, suggesting that individual car ownership is the winner’s way to get around.

In most cities, the quote makes no sense. London buses can be full of human drama, but are generally cheap and reliable. Likewise, Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, despite the constant disruption caused by installing the tram network, seem to be available when you need them. It is only in Glasgow that I feel like a failure for trying to take a bus.

It is an undignified experience. You can wait half an hour for a bus that never arrives. When a bus to your destination does arrive you often find it is run by a rival operator so your return ticket isn’t valid. The information displays are almost entirely fictional. They are certainly not based on how far away the bus is at the time, which feels like it should be trivial given the rollout of network technologies like 5g.

So why are Glasgow’s buses so bad?

There’s a funny scene in The Glasgow Effect where Ellie Harrison meets up with the chair of SPT, the regional transport partnership, and asks him if he has a car. He looked affronted … of course he has a car: he’s a successful politician, that’s his privilege.

Or, take Gordon Maclennan, former chief executive of SPT, who not only had two cars but also illegally cloned his number plate to avoid paying road tax.

Having worked at SPT a few years ago, my overwhelming impression was that barely anyone who makes decisions about the buses would dream of taking one. There were many good people who cared about improving public transport, but they didn’t have skin in the game so it was difficult for them to understand the system’s failings.

The whole idea of skin in the game is, I don't really care what people think. I care about what they do. It’s about action, not what comes behind as ornaments. Thought is ornament. I consider thought as just your background furniture.

Nassim Taleb on Econtalk

The best way to improve public transport would be force everyone who works in public transport to use it. Not just talk to the people who use it, but to rely on using it for your commute.

In Manchester, they are reversing Margaret Thatcher’s 1986 policy to deregulate buses, ensuring that you can have one, price-capped ticket to get around the city, similar to what they have in London.

Glasgow needs to catch up soon. If we are going to have all these motorways, we might as well run a decent bus service on them.

If you live in or around Glasgow, do join the Get Glasgow Moving campaign who are pressuring politicians to improve the system as a whole. The campaign group are holding their AGM in February, so it is a perfect time to get involved and hear what they are doing.