TRANSPORT campaigners rallied in Glasgow today to demand buses across the Strathclyde region are taken into full public ownership.

Campaigners, led by activists at Get Glasgow Moving, have already succeeded in persuading the region’s transport authority, Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT), to back a publicly owned company in principle.

They rallied outside SPT headquarters to celebrate their latest win as transport chiefs refused to back plans for a partnership with the private sector on bus routes.

Get Glasgow Moving’s Ellie Harrison told the rally that the battle was not over in the fight to drive SPT to deliver on its plans for publicly owned buses, and the SNP government to enact five-year-old legislation enabling SPT to proceed with a public model.

“We want that publicly owned bus company to be running all the buses in our region, like Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, where all the bus services are publicly owned,” she said.

“If they have that there, then why can’t that be our ambition as well?

“SPT have made the right decision, they have scrapped signing that agreement with the private bus companies who are taking SPT to court at the moment.”

To chants of “you can shove the Easdales off the bus” — a reference to the billionaire owners of McGill’s buses — Ms Harrsion told demonstrators the company was taking SPT to court over its plans for municipal buses.

She said: “Everybody wants our buses back in public control — the only people who don’t are those millionaire bus company bosses who want to hold on to their profits.

“They have been making an absolute killing out of bus deregulation over the decades and that needs to stop.”

“SPT is currently looking at options for the future of the regional bus network in the west of Scotland.

“This includes, but is not limited to, a franchising model.

“Our priority is developing a bus network that ensures bus is a viable, affordable and reliable form of transport to both bus users and non-bus users which adequately connects our communities.”