THIS week's councillor column is written by Helensburgh Central Councillor Graham Hardie (Liberal Democrats).

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AS part of my councillor duties, I’m on the board of the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), as well as its operations and personnel committees.

Throughout the pandemic I’ve been working hard with SPT to ensure that bus services in Helensburgh and Lomond run as effectively and smoothly as possible within this challenging climate.

The impact of the virus was immediate when we went into lockdown, with a 90 per cent drop in passenger numbers on all bus services. SPT continued to run subsidised services to their schedule timetable for as long as possible to assist those travelling on essential services.

The financial impact and risk to SPT during the lockdown is quite severe through additional costs incurred, the collapse in passenger-related income on the Glasgow Subway, and the loss of bus station departure charges and advertising.

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Subway patronage fell 97 per cent at the height of the lockdown. SPT assistant chief executive Valerie Davidson warned in June that the estimated deficit for 2020/21 was in the range of £12.5-£20 million.

SPT’s chair, Councillor Martin Bartos, has been to keen to emphasise that although we have received some funding from Transport Scotland, it only covers the period from July to September, so nothing for the initial period from March and nothing planned for after September.

This means we do have to give considerable thought to how we support the transport needs of the public over both short and longer term.

Fortunately, in the Helensburgh and Lomond area most bus operators realigned their services back to pre-Covid provision on Monday, August 3, including Garelochhead Coaches, Wilson’s of Rhu and Scottish Citylink.

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SPT’s local MyBus service M10 was suspended from late March, as was the whole Strathclyde MyBus rural provision, following the government safety guidance on lockdown and restricted movement.

SPT have reconstructed an initial reduced MyBus service provision – with limited journeys per passenger per week, and not taking group bookings – having collaborated with some other transport authorities as part of the restoration plan.

SPT has also been working closely with transport operators, Scottish Government and Transport Scotland to ensure consistency of safe travel rules.

Finally, I would like to thank the chief executive of SPT and his staff for continuing to guide the organisation through a very difficult and unprecedented time.

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