Politicians and commuters are incensed at changes to bus services from Edinburgh to Kinross that it’s claimed could leave passengers stranded in the capital.
From November 23, Citylink will slash its tea-time service back to Kinross meaning there will no buses between 4.30pm and 7pm.
That’s a situation described as “utterly useless” by Roseanna Cunningham, MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.
And she has been backed by Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, who told The Courier she has asked Citylink to “re-think” their winter timetable.
Ms Cunningham said she had received a number of complaints from constituents “expressing concern” about the proposed changes.
“At present there is a pretty good service,” she said. “However, under the new winter timetable, there will be no services for Kinross leaving Edinburgh between 4.30pm and 7.00pm. That is utterly useless for the vast majority of commuter passengers.”
She continued: “I know Councillor Joe Giacopazzi has raised the matter with the relevant departments in the council and I am taking it up with Citylink.
“This new timetable leaves Kinross commuters stranded. It is not as if they can get the train, after all, and if changes are not made to the proposed winter timetable, Citylink will stand accused of treating these regular customers with contempt.”
And Ms Smith added: “Many residents depend on the service for their commute to work and this will be adversely affected with the withdrawal of these services.”
A spokesman for Scottish Citylink said: “Like all businesses, from time to time we take a look at our network to determine which services are most in demand and which have fewer passengers using them.
“This is to ensure we are providing the kind of services that reflect the travel habits of our customers.
“As a result, we are making some changes to our services between Kinross and Edinburgh. From November 23 we are withdrawing and amending a small number of services to reflect passenger demand.
“However, we will continue to operate 28 journeys per day between Edinburgh and Kinross Park and Ride.
“We carried out a consultation with local authorities and received no responses raising any concerns with our plans.”
A spokesman for Transport Scotland: “We understand the changes to the Edinburgh/Kinross service have been raised with Citylink and the relevant authorities and we would urge them to listen to these concerns.”
And a council spokesman added: “We can confirm that senior council staff have met with their counterparts from Scottish Citylink regarding the company’s planned changes to their commercially-operated services.”