Edinburgh Bus Users Group call for better bus stops and services

Edinburgh Bus Users Group (EBUG) is a campaign group which provides a voice for all bus users. Ahead of the council election, the group has already drafted its manifesto, hoping to draw attention to its demands.

It asks in the manifesto for the next council to increase the budget and capacity of the council bus team and asks that the council focuses “more proactively on delivering tangible improvements for bus users”.

The group has around 60 signed up members (new members are welcome by clicking on the link on their website) and more than 700 Twitter followers. The members elect a committee each year to deal with day-to-day business, and it is made up of ordinary Edinburgh residents.

What do you hope to achieve?

We want to protect and improve Edinburgh’s bus network; bus services within Edinburgh Council’s area and others which cross its boundary.

Edinburgh has a much-loved bus network which is the envy of other cities, but it’s been rather taken for granted and, even before Covid, there were dark clouds on the horizon. We want to help ensure that it has a strong, long-term future, meeting Edinburgh residents’ needs.

Why is this important?

It is essential because without a strong, user-friendly and growing bus network, Edinburgh cannot be a sustainable, thriving city. Good public transport is at the heart of successful cities world-wide, and in Edinburgh that means, in the main, buses.

What form does your campaign have?

We always start with a different question: What is in the interest of bus users? Sometimes that means, for example, looking at bus stop design, sometimes at wider issues like the City Mobility Plan, or transport policy.

Since we started in 2019, we’ve spent a lot of time responding to the Council’s consultations and actions. Recently we have tried to be more proactive, for example by creating Bus Stop Audits to highlight the ways that bus stops could be improved.

In the run-up to May this year, we’ll be challenging candidates and parties in the Council elections on what they’d do for bus services.

We’re still quite a small group, so we concentrate on city-wide issues. Where there’s an issue which is important to one or two particular communities, we can best spend our efforts supporting local campaigns…we aim to help, not to take over, local initiatives.

We spend a fair bit of time collaborating with other sustainable transport interests.

We are careful to keep ourselves independent of operators, local or national authorities, political parties and trade unions.

How can people reading this article help?

By joining up (it’s free). And, whether a member or not, letting us know about relevant issues with the bus services you use. Of course, we can’t promise to solve your problems, but it’s important that we know what’s happening out there.

For those who’d like to go a bit further, there are still vacancies on our Committee. It would be particularly good to get more input from younger people, and the south/south west and west of the city.

https://edinburghbususers.group

EBUG looks out out for Edinburgh’s bus passengers and services. It is a campaign which aims to provide a voice for bus users, and is committed to protecting and improving Edinburgh’s bus network for the benefit of bus users and potential users.

The group is concerned with bus services operating within The City of Edinburgh Council area and those which cross its boundary, and with city-wide, rather than local, issues. The group says that while Edinburgh’s bus network is popular and is widely considered a model service by people within and outside Edinburgh, it faces a number of issues, changes and challenges.

EBUG is committed to sustainable transport, and is user/supporter led, independent of any operator, local or national authority, political party or trade union.

Participation in EBUG is open to anyone with an interest on that basis, and the body co-operates with other user-focused groups, such as Bus Users Scotland at a national level.

Ahead of the local elections in May EBUG has drafted a manifesto which you can read below: