Ministers have come under fire for slashing a budget to transform public transport and make it greener in a large part of Scotland to zero without warning - as moves are made to ban older cars from city centres.
The Herald can reveal issues with funding has led to the scrapping of plans to electrify a bus fleet as the nation aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
It has emerged that the Scottish Government has slashed funding for projects run by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, which is responsible for planning and coordinating regional public transport and is responsible for operating the Glasgow Subway, the third-oldest in the world.
Its capital grant which is relied on to modernise public transport, including the decarbonisation of bus fleets has been slashed from around £15m to zero.
The Scottish Government has also decided that its contribution to the modernisation of Glasgow's subway, which is almost 130 years old, is also cut from around £13m a year to zero.
The SPT is also disappointed that the Scottish Government decided not to support its Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB) bid to deliver a fully electric bus fleet across the west of Scotland. It was asking for £5.8m with over £10.9m from SPT.
READ MORE: Fears for future of buses as £500m ScotGov flagship fund stalls
The move would allow for the replacing of 41 diesel buses but the plan has now been scrapped.
Valerie Davidson, chief executive of the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport has told ministers of her concerns at the cuts.
It comes after the Herald revealed that the Scottish Government's flagship £500m plan to improve public transport and increase passenger numbers has been plunged into 'chaos' with just £26.9m spent.
It was confirmed by the Scottish Government that there are "no plans" to provide direct funding for the Bus Partnership Fund in the next financial year - 2024/25 Since the fund was established the number of passenger journeys on local bus services in Scotland has actually fallen by nearly 25%.
SPT has said that "despite statements of commitment to public transport, no resources are being made available by the Scottish Government to SPT to support public transport infrastructure across the whole of the region".
Ms Davidson has told ministers that SPT was "committed to delivering on public transport improvements across the region" and added that they were "extremely disappointed by the lack of investment being made available for major public transport transformation".
In a letter seen by the Herald she says that no advance notification of the zero funding decision was given or a request for information on the impact was sought in advance.
The general capital support grant is needed for work on decarbonisation of bus fleets, tunnel integrity, engineering works and bus infrastructure improvements. It also supports councils in their delivery of active travel and local projects, such as environmentally-friendly park and ride schemes.
"Cuts to this funding will have a hugely negative impact on our efforts to ensure transport in our area is greener, more connected, more reliable, and more accessible," Ms Davidson has warned.
"It is disheartening that this ambition to realise accessibility, affordability, availability and connectivity will be negatively impacted due to a lack of capital funding."
The cuts would slash SPT's normal capital spend of around £50m a year by over half and executives are now working out how to deal with the £28m budget black hole.
Modern trains are already being brought into service as part of a £288m modernisation programme, which has also taken a hit from Scottish Government budget cuts. The overall goal is to replace the 40-year-old subway trains, upgrade the signalling systems and install platform screen doors at all 15 stations.
Two of the new trains went into service during off peak hours during in December as a 'soft launch', but SPT was hoping to retire the old fleet by June this year.
Work is due to continue in replacing signalling and communications systems.
A new operational control centre is also underway with hopes it will be complete by the end of 2025 and SPT will be introducing platform screen doors to station platforms by the middle of 2025.
The firm is also due to look into the introduction of Unattended Train Operation or "driverless" trains to the system by the end of 2026.
Full works were expected to be completed by the end of 2026. It comes as the Scottish Government budget for supporting bus services has been slashed by nearly half over two years, from £99.41m in 2022/23 to £55.5m in 2024/25. In the past year there has been an 11% cut.
The bus service support budget provides funding for the Network Support Grant, which helps bus operators to keep fares down and enable them to run services that might not otherwise be commercially viable.
Campaigners have raised concerns that the cuts are likely to impact on the government's aim to cut car miles in Scotland and help protect the environment while low emission zones are being established across the country banning older cars.
Since Glasgow's low emission zone was enforced in June, more than 25,000 fines have been issued.
Some £1.354m was expected to be brought in in the first four months of enforcement.
The amount brought in from fines has risen by over two-and-a-half times over the four months from £173,820 in June to £457,800 in September. In July, some £405,780 was raised and in August it was £422,280.
Enforcement is expected to be brought in in Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen in June, this year.
The motoring organisation RAC has previously warned ministers that the LEZs will discriminate against lower income households who rely on older cars and cannot afford to change up.
Exemptions are available for blue badge holders, motorbikes, mopeds and emergency vehicles. But in general petrol cars made before 2005 and diesels built before September 2014 are not allowed in the zone.
The Scottish Government has set a target to phase out petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030 to help create a healthier, cleaner, and greener Scotland.
While stating that transport is the largest contributor to "harmful" climate emissions it said it was committed to reducing our emissions by 75% by 2030 and to a legally binding target of net-zero by 2045.
At the start of its quest it said that the scale of transformation required through decarbonisation is unprecedented.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “We have already provided £152m from a long term commitment of £246m to the SPT led Subway Modernisation project, and that commitment still stands. However, this was always expected to be spread over a number of years and phased in conjunction with SPT’s own resources.
“The UK Government did not inflation-proof their capital budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real-terms cut in our capital funding over the medium-term between 2023-24 and 2027-28. We are using all our powers to maximise the funding we have to achieve net zero and maintain high-quality public infrastructure. The 2024-25 Scottish Budget will spend over £3.87 billion on transport across the country.
“We’re pleased that SPT have received 15 of the 17 new trains as part of the testing programme, with the first two entering passenger service on 11 December and the remaining trains due to be introduced in 2024.”
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