Boghall residents demand better bus service

Jan 28 2010 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

RESIDENTS of Boghall have hit out at the level of bus service they receive writes Alistair Watson.

The area’s councillors held a public meeting in which residents were invited to quiz West Lothian Council’s public transport manager as well as representatives from travel companies.

While the turnout at the meeting wasn’t great the message they had was loud and clear – we want better service.

At the moment First Bus and SD Travel run routes in Boghall during the week while First Bus also provides a weekend service. However, those residents who attended the meeting had nothing but complaints about First Bus which they say regularly cancels services in the area. And they were furious a representative from the company failed to show up at the public meeting.

Philip Avenue resident Len Cowley, 62, told the Courier: “I want to see a better level of service for the people of Boghall.

“If you add everything up there is something seriously wrong with the First Bus service in Boghall. There are a lot of people moaning about it especially at weekends when it is only First Bus that is running on the route. It’s a shame more residents didn’t come here tonight to complain.

“They regularly cancel buses, they will miss out half the run and don’t stick to the timetable. It is not uncommon for them not to even run the bus up the hill in to Boghall meaning we have to go down to Edinburgh Road to catch a bus.

“At least I am fit enough to go down to the main road to get the bus but there are a lot of older people who can’t get down the hill.

“They also cancelled the bus run to Tesco which was a vital service for pensioners and people without cars in Boghall.”

However there was some good news for residents when SD Travel’s Sam Douglas announced they were planning to trial a weekend service and reinstate a service stopping at the supermarket.

He said: “We are running a couple of services out there just now but we’re looking to change our services to take on board some of the comments made at the meeting.

“We want to help the residents and do the right thing. It’s mostly the Saturday service that they seem to have a problem with. We ran one before and it just didn’t work out for us but we’re going to try it out again on a trial basis. We’re also looking to put on a service that will go via Tesco.

“These things cannot happen overnight. You can’t just change services as you like and you have to give the council 14 days notice and the traffic commissioner for Scotland needs 56 days notice of any change.”

Bathgate Councillor John McGinty added: “Many people in Boghall rely on the bus service and I was grateful that people took the time to come to the meeting and tell us first hand their concerns about the shortcomings of the bus service in Boghall.

“I hope that their views will be listened to by the powers that be and I will do all I can to make sure that the bus service is improved for local people.”

First Bus were unavailable for comment when the Courier went to press.