Due to a 21% increase in costs on previous years, the number of bus services running across the Falkirk area will be reduced as of Monday, 15 August.
Commercial operators who tendered to run the subsidised service cited the pandemic, fuel prices and the broader economic impact of Brexit and the Ukraine conflict for significantly higher bids.
These bids far exceeded the money the Council had available to spend. To bring costs back on budget, several early morning, evening, and Sunday services – selected due to low usage - will no longer operate.
However, the Council will continue to spend around £1.1m to ensure communities retain a number of services that operators said were not commercially viable.
Affected services
From Monday, 15 August the following services will no longer operate:
- Service 6/8 - Camelon/Tamfourhill - Falkirk
- 0540, 0620, 0703, 0801, 2021, 2121 (Monday to Saturday)
- Service 2 - Falkirk – Bo’ness
- 2205 Falkirk to Bo’ness and 2305 Bo’ness to Falkirk (Monday to Friday)
- Service F45/46 - Linlithgow – Bo’ness – Linlithgow
- 1905, 2105, 2205 (Monday to Saturday)
- reduction of daytime service from two-bus operation running hourly in each direction to one bus operation running two-hourly in each direction (Monday to Saturday)
Sunday impact
Effective from Sunday, 21 August, these services will no longer operate:
- Service F8 – Falkirk – Callendar Park – Westquarter
- Service F2 – Falkirk – Limerigg
- Service F29 – Falkirk – Avonbridge/Bathgate
- Service 6/8 - Falkirk – Camelon/Tamfourhill
- Service 2 – Falkirk – Bo’ness
- Service F45 – Bo'ness – Linlithgow
- Service F14 – Falkirk – Middlefield
- Service F1 – Maddiston - Whitecross