First Glasgow announces night bus service is being withdrawn

First Glasgow has announced it is withdrawing its night bus services in the city from the end of this month.

The firm says the decision was made due to significant financial losses being made on the service over the past year, with buses regularly running with as few as 14 passengers per hour.

The cancellation will hit 11 routes that currently operate across Glasgow in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Night service drivers to be redeployed elsewhere

First Glasgow says the drivers who work on the late night services will be redeployed into daytime services across the city where demand is higher and additional capacity is required.

First Glasgow reintroduced its night bus services in June 2022 to help boost the night-time economy in the city as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted.

The firm says that despite significant efforts to promote the services, including offering free tickets in December last year, passenger numbers remained between 30% and 35%.

First Glasgow is also highlighting its concerns on night bus service uptake through meetings with stakeholders and partner organisations as an attempt to secure promotional support.

Night bus use ' has not reached the level required to sustain services'

Graeme Macfarlan, Commercial Director at First Bus Scotland, said: “We were delighted to be able to reintroduce our night bus network last June in an attempt to support the city’s night-time economy.

“Despite a wide variety of efforts by First Glasgow and partner organisations to increase the number of people using the night buses, it has not reached the level required to sustain these services beyond July. To do so, we would require the number of people using them each weekend to treble overnight, which is not realistic.

“We really wanted to give these services every chance to succeed which is why we have absorbed the operating losses for the last 12 months. It has become clear, however, given the change in behaviour and times people are going out in the city at the weekend, there is not enough appetite in Glasgow for night bus services to successfully operate into the early hours.”

First Glasgow’s night buses covered travel from the city centre across Glasgow and the surrounding areas including Clydebank, Paisley, Newton Mearns, East Kilbride, Hamilton, Motherwell and Wishaw.

'Kick in the teeth' for workers

“This is a deeply worrying development and I would urge First Bus to not act with profit on their minds.

"We know through our Safe Home campaign that workers within the night-time economy struggle to get safe and affordable transport home.

"Removing one of their only lifelines to do so seems shortsighted at best and inexplicable at worst.

“We need a fully integrated, not for profit public transport system.

"In conjunction with local authorities, partners and the Scottish Government, transport providers should be exploring all avenues to provide accessible journeys home.

"Profit is not the priority here; workers safety comes first."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.