r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	Scunnered20
Comment	> I don't understand how Edinburgh can manage to run buses seemingly 24/7 and yet Glasgow struggles to even have some buses before 6am in places. It's a mix of reasons. * Edinburgh has no suburban rail network to speak of (it did at one time but it was destroyed in the Beeching Cuts) while Glasgow has one of the biggest existing suburban rail networks in the UK. It doesn't mean everything's hunky dory for Glasgow obviously, but as a starting point, it means Edinburgh depends on buses to power its public transit network to an extreme degree that Glasgow doesn't. * This makes Edinburgh's bus service naturally better placed to make a profit than Glasgow's. Should that matter? No, of course it shouldn't. But while we have private operators deciding routes based on performance, that means ultimately any route is vulnerable to being cut in Glasgow. Again, not defending this remotely, but that's the situation we're in. * On top of that, because Edinburgh's bus network turns a very healthy profit and is effectively municipally run, a bigger share of these operating profits are re-invested into better services rather than being squirreled away as part of shareholder dividends.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/14vntlc/fyi/jrfl0ra/
Created	Mon 10th Jul 2023 7:12pm
Status	normal ()

> I don't understand how Edinburgh can manage to run buses seemingly 24/7 and yet Glasgow struggles to even have some buses before 6am in places.

It's a mix of reasons.

* Edinburgh has no suburban rail network to speak of (it did at one time but it was destroyed in the Beeching Cuts) while Glasgow has one of the biggest existing suburban rail networks in the UK. It doesn't mean everything's hunky dory for Glasgow obviously, but as a starting point, it means Edinburgh depends on buses to power its public transit network to an extreme degree that Glasgow doesn't.

* This makes Edinburgh's bus service naturally better placed to make a profit than Glasgow's. Should that matter? No, of course it shouldn't. But while we have private operators deciding routes based on performance, that means ultimately any route is vulnerable to being cut in Glasgow. Again, not defending this remotely, but that's the situation we're in.

* On top of that, because Edinburgh's bus network turns a very healthy profit and is effectively municipally run, a bigger share of these operating profits are re-invested into better services rather than being squirreled away as part of shareholder dividends.