In an ideal world all public transport would be free, and no one would have any need for a car. Climate change needs to be at the heart of future public transport planning. To be fit for purpose public transport must be affordable and accessible, cycle routes must be safe and commonplace. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Fife. Bus travel is extortionate- a return trip between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy for work, a relatively short journey of around 15-20minutes costs £8.40. This is more expensive than travelling by car. We need to reverse this to incentivise the public to use public transport over cars. Increase road tax and increase subsidies for bus travel- bring the prices down and raise the standard of service. It should not be cheaper to travel by car than bus. There a 2 reasons people choose to drive rather than bus: price and unreliable service: buses are expensive and regularly late or cancelled. It's frankly not good enough.
Fife's buses aren't the best. As someone who has to reach Edinburgh once a week and also have to get to towns like Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes from Leven it's just slow using the bus. In my mind something like a tram or metro service would work really well in Fife as a lot of the major towns are quite far apart. This will help people who can't just drive get around. I know money is a huge factor in this but I could see it being very popular - maybe even more popular than the already used bus service. It would definitely help people get around Fife.
Fife needs more integration with service to and from Towns like Kirkliston, Livingston etc: not everyone wants/ needs to just go to or via Edinburgh. People come to Fife to work from Kirkliston, Queensferry and Livingston and vice versa.
Yes, there are some good bus services that run across multiple council areas - like the Stagecoach 23 between St Andrews and Stirling via Kinross and Dollar - it currently only runs once every 3 hours - it would probably be much better used and more useful if it could rune once an hour - could Fife, Stirling and Perth & Kinross councils get together and agree a joint subsidy to bring this improvement about? Doing so would benefit all the councils along the route?
Fife has a great deal of people who struggle to get to appointments. I am particularly interested in those trying to access drug and alcohol services. These services can be hard to get to. I would like to see the introduction of a "recovery pass" to help people attend appointments and reduce social isolation.
1) Cycle paths next to rural roads (i.e. paths created on the grassland or whatever is next tot he roads). It is far to scary for the majority of people living or travelling through rural areas to even think about cycling on these roads.
2) More pop-up repair shops to deal with bike repairs as this is also a huge turn-off; we invested our energies into using a bike to only then get three punctures in a row :(
3) I have been trying to figure out why I feel happy using trains but no longer buses really. I think the answer may be communication; on trains we are kept informed through electronic means and staff about cancellations, delays and due times etc. There is no easy equivalent for buses. I have memories of buses just not turning up in my younger years and couldn't be doing with that now if I have the option.
4) Incentives for using electric cars (and research into eco-friendly recycling of their batteries)
5) Investment into community car-share schemes.
Real time displays at the main stops such as Bus/train stations, town centres, Hospitals and Colleges
Help make all train stations fully accessible to everyone and with connection to the bus network such as the 99's Leuchars to St Andrews
I think the possibility of a new railway routes to other places such as Dundee, Stirling and Glasgow (Leven and St Andrews in future when lines reopen)
How about building better cycle route not just a bike painted onto a path that lead you into shelters and random street clutter and not have to give way to every side if you could increase cycling to schools and towns and cut the budget on school transportation in long run if you can get more kids to cycle to school from different towns for example building a route from Cardenden at the side of the railway to Lochgelly High School could provide a safe alternative to buses.
Increasing the frequency of bus services makes them more useful and so encourages more use. You only have to look at the 99 St Andrews - Leuchars - Dundee service - there are 8 buses an hour and very well used. Passengers don't need to know the timetable, they can just pop out to the stop and know there will be a bus along in 7 or 8 minutes. Where buses are hourly and you have to change to another hourly bus to get to your destination it makes planning more difficult and the bus journey less inviting. Encouraging an increase in frequency of services would help more people to use the bus and get more cars off the road improving traffic for all.
From Crail the dream would be to have two buses an hour in each direction - indeed in the mornings towards Anstruther even one bus an hour would be good - this could be done by a shuttle bus between Anstruther and St Andrews via Crail - if it was timed to connect with the X60 in Anstruther so much the better - however, I suspect that residents of Colinsburgh, Kilconquhar and Lower Largo would also like two buses an hour - and the residents of Anstruther, Pittenweem, St Monans and Elie would appreciate 3 buses an hour - so a simpler solution might just be to double the frequency of the 95 service to twice an hour from 6am to 6pm. (Reading a local transport history book there was a time in the 1930s or so when the equivalent bus did run every half hour.) To extend this idea to the rest of Fife: wherever a bus service is subsidised in the evenings then an increase in daytime frequency to the next number of buses per hour should also be subsidised...
My dream would be for free buses for all- this would help in the fight against inequality and encourage people out of their cars to help improve climate outcomes. Buses would be hydrogen -powered, as is the case for some buses in Dundee and Aberdeen. Buses would carry bicycles (see Borders Buses). Fife Council would encourage its employees to cycle and use public transport more. The Council would join up with local cycle businesses to hold repair workshops and set up a system for employees to buy bikes with small monthly payments (see Bike to Work scheme in Edinburgh). More money would be spent on cycling - on cycle paths and Bikeability in all schools.There would be an extensive Car Club with electric cars in all towns and villages.
After nearly 70 years living in Scotland I have yet to see joined up transport out with the major cities. A Scotland wide solution covering all modes of public transport would be ideal. Eg in the Low Countries rail bus and tram stations are next to each other and changing from one mode of transport to another is seamless. Public transport there is also well used because services are far more frequent than in Scotland. Even relatively small towns have train stations next to the bus station.
By contrast Scottish transport planners appear not to talk to each other. There seems to be little or no consultation on links between train and bus.
Twice recently I have returned to Kirkcaldy from Aberdeen by train on a Sunday to find I missed the only bus service running along Victoria Road by 10 minutes and had to wait 50 minutes for the next bus or walk. Not everyone is fit enough to make that choice.
If we want future generations to use buses we should encourage this by making sure that bus travel is free for all children and teenagers. It should be policed in the reverse way to buying alcohol: the child is only asked for ID if they look over the "free travel" age.
Open answers (37)
In an ideal world all public transport would be free, and no one would have any need for a car. Climate change needs to be at the heart of future public transport planning. To be fit for purpose public transport must be affordable and accessible, cycle routes must be safe and commonplace. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Fife. Bus travel is extortionate- a return trip between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy for work, a relatively short journey of around 15-20minutes costs £8.40. This is more expensive than travelling by car. We need to reverse this to incentivise the public to use public transport over cars. Increase road tax and increase subsidies for bus travel- bring the prices down and raise the standard of service. It should not be cheaper to travel by car than bus. There a 2 reasons people choose to drive rather than bus: price and unreliable service: buses are expensive and regularly late or cancelled. It's frankly not good enough.
Fife's buses aren't the best. As someone who has to reach Edinburgh once a week and also have to get to towns like Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes from Leven it's just slow using the bus. In my mind something like a tram or metro service would work really well in Fife as a lot of the major towns are quite far apart. This will help people who can't just drive get around. I know money is a huge factor in this but I could see it being very popular - maybe even more popular than the already used bus service. It would definitely help people get around Fife.
Fife needs more integration with service to and from Towns like Kirkliston, Livingston etc: not everyone wants/ needs to just go to or via Edinburgh. People come to Fife to work from Kirkliston, Queensferry and Livingston and vice versa.
Yes, there are some good bus services that run across multiple council areas - like the Stagecoach 23 between St Andrews and Stirling via Kinross and Dollar - it currently only runs once every 3 hours - it would probably be much better used and more useful if it could rune once an hour - could Fife, Stirling and Perth & Kinross councils get together and agree a joint subsidy to bring this improvement about? Doing so would benefit all the councils along the route?
Thank you for your feedback. Feedback like this is invaluable when planning and establishing new journeys and routes with the bus companies.
Fife has a great deal of people who struggle to get to appointments. I am particularly interested in those trying to access drug and alcohol services. These services can be hard to get to. I would like to see the introduction of a "recovery pass" to help people attend appointments and reduce social isolation.
1) Cycle paths next to rural roads (i.e. paths created on the grassland or whatever is next tot he roads). It is far to scary for the majority of people living or travelling through rural areas to even think about cycling on these roads.
2) More pop-up repair shops to deal with bike repairs as this is also a huge turn-off; we invested our energies into using a bike to only then get three punctures in a row :(
3) I have been trying to figure out why I feel happy using trains but no longer buses really. I think the answer may be communication; on trains we are kept informed through electronic means and staff about cancellations, delays and due times etc. There is no easy equivalent for buses. I have memories of buses just not turning up in my younger years and couldn't be doing with that now if I have the option.
4) Incentives for using electric cars (and research into eco-friendly recycling of their batteries)
5) Investment into community car-share schemes.
Real time displays at the main stops such as Bus/train stations, town centres, Hospitals and Colleges
Help make all train stations fully accessible to everyone and with connection to the bus network such as the 99's Leuchars to St Andrews
I think the possibility of a new railway routes to other places such as Dundee, Stirling and Glasgow (Leven and St Andrews in future when lines reopen)
How about building better cycle route not just a bike painted onto a path that lead you into shelters and random street clutter and not have to give way to every side if you could increase cycling to schools and towns and cut the budget on school transportation in long run if you can get more kids to cycle to school from different towns for example building a route from Cardenden at the side of the railway to Lochgelly High School could provide a safe alternative to buses.
Increasing the frequency of bus services makes them more useful and so encourages more use. You only have to look at the 99 St Andrews - Leuchars - Dundee service - there are 8 buses an hour and very well used. Passengers don't need to know the timetable, they can just pop out to the stop and know there will be a bus along in 7 or 8 minutes. Where buses are hourly and you have to change to another hourly bus to get to your destination it makes planning more difficult and the bus journey less inviting. Encouraging an increase in frequency of services would help more people to use the bus and get more cars off the road improving traffic for all.
From Crail the dream would be to have two buses an hour in each direction - indeed in the mornings towards Anstruther even one bus an hour would be good - this could be done by a shuttle bus between Anstruther and St Andrews via Crail - if it was timed to connect with the X60 in Anstruther so much the better - however, I suspect that residents of Colinsburgh, Kilconquhar and Lower Largo would also like two buses an hour - and the residents of Anstruther, Pittenweem, St Monans and Elie would appreciate 3 buses an hour - so a simpler solution might just be to double the frequency of the 95 service to twice an hour from 6am to 6pm. (Reading a local transport history book there was a time in the 1930s or so when the equivalent bus did run every half hour.) To extend this idea to the rest of Fife: wherever a bus service is subsidised in the evenings then an increase in daytime frequency to the next number of buses per hour should also be subsidised...
My dream would be for free buses for all- this would help in the fight against inequality and encourage people out of their cars to help improve climate outcomes. Buses would be hydrogen -powered, as is the case for some buses in Dundee and Aberdeen. Buses would carry bicycles (see Borders Buses). Fife Council would encourage its employees to cycle and use public transport more. The Council would join up with local cycle businesses to hold repair workshops and set up a system for employees to buy bikes with small monthly payments (see Bike to Work scheme in Edinburgh). More money would be spent on cycling - on cycle paths and Bikeability in all schools.There would be an extensive Car Club with electric cars in all towns and villages.
After nearly 70 years living in Scotland I have yet to see joined up transport out with the major cities. A Scotland wide solution covering all modes of public transport would be ideal. Eg in the Low Countries rail bus and tram stations are next to each other and changing from one mode of transport to another is seamless. Public transport there is also well used because services are far more frequent than in Scotland. Even relatively small towns have train stations next to the bus station.
By contrast Scottish transport planners appear not to talk to each other. There seems to be little or no consultation on links between train and bus.
Twice recently I have returned to Kirkcaldy from Aberdeen by train on a Sunday to find I missed the only bus service running along Victoria Road by 10 minutes and had to wait 50 minutes for the next bus or walk. Not everyone is fit enough to make that choice.
If we want future generations to use buses we should encourage this by making sure that bus travel is free for all children and teenagers. It should be policed in the reverse way to buying alcohol: the child is only asked for ID if they look over the "free travel" age.