Aberdeenshire Council announces new 10-year passenger transport strategy
A local authority has announced an ambitious new 10-year passenger transport strategy.
The updated strategy sets out Aberdeenshire Council’s main objectives for services between now and 2035 and incorporates general policies for public and other passenger transport.
Among the strategy’s transport objectives are improvement of bus service reliability by reducing the number of journey cancellations affecting communities, making bus travel affordable to more people and increasing the number of Aberdeenshire residents who can access key service centres using public transport.
It also aims to improve the punctuality of bus services, widen the availability of public transport to more Aberdeenshire residents through timetabled or demand responsive service and reduce bus journey times to key service centres.
Through a Scottish Government Community Bus Fund grant, the council commissioned Stantec UK to produce a report forming the basis of the strategy, undertaking accessibility analysis and conducting market research.
Following widespread public consultation and with input from the council’s six area committees, the new strategy recently approved by the infrastructure services committee (ISC) will focus on three key outcomes:
• Improve opportunities and the quality of life for residents of Aberdeenshire through appropriate passenger transport provision, supporting resilient connected communities.
• Increase bus use by encouraging a shift in travel from car to passenger transport.
• Reduce carbon emissions by reducing the number of total vehicle trips that are made year-on-year and by increasing the proportion of trips that are made using low and zero emission passenger transport vehicles.
Meanwhile, the strategy’s four objectives to deliver the outcomes are to address the barriers which stop people travelling by bus or prevent people from using the bus more often; improve the quality of the bus-user experience; decarbonisation of the passenger transport fleet and delivery of a financially-sustainable network of passenger transport services.
Councillor Alan Turner, chairman of the council’s infrastructure servicers committee, said: “I think we are all agreed that this is an aspirational passenger transport strategy for the next decade and a crucial aspect will be that it remains sustainable throughout its duration.
“We fully recognise that with such an ambitious strategy comes the need for significant investment and I know our services are firmly focused on attracting the necessary external funding in the months and years ahead to deliver our objectives.”
ISC vice-chairwoman councillor Isobel Davidson said: “I very much welcome the new passenger transport strategy and I’m particularly pleased to see that it links very closely to the ‘connected communities’ aims within the Aberdeenshire Council Plan 2024-2029 to ensure we collaborate with partners and communities to attract investment to enhance travel and transport connections between our towns and villages.”
