Residents plea for reversal of bus service reduction

The services changes were made on July 15 this year when N46/N47 were cancelled and replaced by three new timetables - the 46, 47 and X47.

The new timetable has seen half-hourly services continue to and from Corpach until 9.30am when the service is reduced to hourly until 5.30pm. The Plantation hourly service now starts at 8.48am.

The general consensus was that the cuts had a severe impact on those who rely on the buses and that in the short term there needs to be a strong push to find funding for a fourth bus to allow the timetable to be restored.

Mr Summers said that he would like to support the idea of having a fourth bus but insisted that there just wasn’t the budget for it, causing frustration within the room.

Community members argued that room had been made in the previous year’s budget to run a 12-fleet in-house service around Inverness "to deliver passenger and school transport services at a lower cost than commercial contractors."

At the time of launching the service in January 2023, Highland Council were looking to make savings of around £1.4 million a year by running its own service.

There was also agreement about the transport problems faced by Fort William, with a downward spiral of reduced public transport and resultant increased congestion on the roads, which most believe will only get worse.

Community Council secretary Russell Leaper told the Lochaber Times: "The social cost to the community of these problems is massive.

"Although there were some good suggestions at the meeting for steps to alleviate the crisis, the relevant authorities, including Highland Council and Transport Scotland, are not paying any attention.

"The lack of attention to planning by Highland Council continues to make things worse by creating new housing developments with no regard for transport provisions, and then cutting the bus services that we do have."

Concern for the safety of vulnerable members of the community and punctuality of the new service was also mooted at the meeting.

After stating that there had been a 15 per cent improvement in punctuality since the new timetables had been in place, David Summers insisted: "Reliability and conforming with the Traffic Commissioner’s standards for punctuality are important. A lower level of service does mean better punctuality."

Ideas from the floor to improve the traffic congestion issues included the introduction of water taxis, rail buses and traffic light systems at roundabouts.