The Scottish Government has got at least one good headline from a press release today about a £20m spend from its new Bus Infrastructure Fund in the current financial year – a fund that is falling well short of the £500m promised by its ill-fated and probably fictitious predecessor.
The Scotsman reports:
Pioneering Glasgow City Council AI technology to cut bus journey times by up to 50 per cent
Pioneering AI technology that could cut bus journey times by up to half is to be trialled in Glasgow thanks to £490,000 in Scottish Government Funding.
I can’t read the story as it is behind a paywall but I note that a 2022 report from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) states that:
Since 2019, SPT has provided £490,000 of funding to the Council to support the roll-out of Traffic Light Priority (TLP) systems. This technology offers greater journey time reliability for buses by allocating additional ‘green phase’ signal time for approaching services.
It could be a coincidence or that someone has got the wrong end of a stick.
But of course what is new and sexy about today’s story is the addition of AI.
It comes as Transport Scotland – an arm of the Scottish Government – announces that:
(more…)The Scottish Government has now allocated £20 million through the new Bus Infrastructure Fund in 2025-26.
Transport Insights 