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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Gregor Farquharson

SPT proposals slammed by Lanarkshire residents as 101/2 bus route looks to be cancelled

SPT has offered an Invitation to Tender for a new bus route to serve rural Lanarkshire towns Biggar and Abington.

This is after it was announced the 101/2 service would cease to exist as of August 13.

This left locals feeling stranded and some said that the towns would be "cut off".

Now, the local transport authority SPT has announced an Invitation to Tender a new route to serve the local communities.

This will begin at Crawford and service Abington, Roberton, Lamington, Biggar, Carnwath, Forth, Shotts and Harthill - in line with their Framework for Supported Services.

They have said that this service would seek to provide connectivity between the current commercial Stagecoach X74 at Abington, and the current commercial Citylink 900 service at Harthill.

Local campaigner Barry Knock has said that this is not a suitable replacement.

He told Lanarkshire Live : "The proposed replacement with leave many vulnerable people without access to public transport.

"The settlements of Elvanfoot, Dolphington, Garvald, West Linton, and Carlops will have their connectivity removed at a stroke.

"The Community at Garvald cares for people with severe disabilities and without transport links for staff and residents alike will create additional operational hardships for those in need of most help.

"The additional journey time by using the proposed replacement service will see a marked decline in ridership, (who wants to change at Harthill services to get to Edinburgh) and as one resident put it will be a waste of subsidy which could be put towards maintaining the existing route."

One Facebook user slammed the proposals. They said: "What are the Scottish Government and their Green party doing?

"I thought the idea was to cut your carbon footprint, with no buses going direct to Edinburgh looks like a normal commute to Edinburgh via bus now would take someone from Biggar about three hours to get there."

Another wrote: "All that is needed is something from Crawford or similar via Abington, Biggar and West Linton to Penicuik, then if needed you can change for one of the many buses into Edinburgh.

"Clearly don't give a hoot about getting people to Edinburgh, but will take you to Harthill Services?"

And did you know Lanarkshire Live is on Facebook? Why not head to our page and give us a like and share.

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