Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Lothian Buses, Formerly Lothian Region Transport

That the Parliament celebrates the 40th anniversary of Lothian Buses, which was formerly Lothian Region Transport and is the UK’s largest municipal bus company; commends the foresight of then Lothian Region, which established Lothian Regional Transport plc following the Transport Act 1985, which mandated that bus operators be run as commercial entities; notes the efforts of the Lothian Region administration and trades unions for resisting a management buyout in 1992, ensuring that Lothian Buses was the only major publicly owned bus company in Scotland; believes that the deregulation and privatisation of bus services has failed on its own terms; notes the continued municipal ownership model in the Lothians; believes that this ensures profits are reinvested into new routes, low ticket prices and fleet improvements; notes the crucial role that it believes public transport has in addressing carbon emissions and growing local economies, and further notes calls on the Scottish Government to urgently simplify bus franchising legislation as a stepping-stone to municipal ownership, to ensure that other regions can build better bus services.