The boss of one of First Bus's transport rivals has said the company is considering running night bus services from the end of the month - but only on selected routes.

Ralph Roberts, CEO of McGill's Buses, told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that the operator is "very serious" about taking on the services being axed on July 31 by First Glasgow.

Mr Roberts said the company's "first priority is to serve our daytime customers" but that it would definitely run four night routes with the scope for an extra fifth.

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He said these would include: Glasgow city centre to the Paisley corridor through Bellahouston and and Cardonald; the Govan corridor out to Drumoyne through Renfrew to Paisley; Easterhouse along Alexandra Parade; and a route out to Pollok and Nitshill.

McGill's had announced earlier in the week that it was looking at the viability of running night bus services following a shock announcement by First Glasgow on Monday that it would end the city's 11 night time routes.

There has been outcry from politicians, night time workers, charities, safety experts and unions about the loss of the service.

First Glasgow said as few as 14 passengers an hour were running on some routes and driver shortages meant drivers would be deployed to enhance day time services.

Mr Roberts told the BBC that footfall had returned to 90% of its pre-pandemic levels on McGill's services but cost bases have risen, in part due to Brexit, and that access to employees has been difficult.

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But he added: "We feel we can make these work and, if they do, then we would expand the routes."

Duncan Cameron, chief executive of First Bus Scotland, told The Herald earlier this week that the company was willing to be flexible around driver recruitment and suggested that pub staff could be trained as drivers then work a hybrid bar/bus shift.

In response to this Mr Roberts replied: "You really need to be doing [bus driving] as your sole job to be good at it."

He said teams at McGill's are "working hard" to get the permissions needed to go ahead with the new routes and were trying to cut a three month process to one month in order to ensure a "seamless handover" of services at the end of this month.

McGill’s Buses, the UK’s largest independent bus operator, is owned by Scottish billionaire brothers Sandy and James Easdale