McGills Eastern Scottish has informed the council that they intend to cease all bus services in West Lothian from 4 December.

McGills has also advised that they will cease two commercial services from 15 October (X22 and X24 between Livingston and Edinburgh).

McGills have confirmed that rising costs, difficulty in recruiting, too many operators, combined with too few passengers, are amongst their reasons for ceasing their services.

The vast majority of bus routes in West Lothian are fully commercial (80%).

An immediate review needs to take place to understand what would be required to try and realign the subsidised and remaining commercial bus networks.

Executive councillor for the Environment, Tom Conn added: "This is clearly going to cause significant disruption to those that use the bus network in West Lothian and it is very sad news for those that work for McGills Eastern Scottish. This is as significant blow for bus users locally, and it highlights the major problems that many commercial operators are experiencing across Scotland.

"It has been very obvious for a long time now that there is not enough resources within the bus industry in Scotland to provide the same level of services that were previously provided. "Less bus users, increasing costs and driver shortages has led to West Lothian's commercial bus network being reduced significantly in recent years.

"I'm sure we all hope that other commercial bus providers will look to pick up some of these bus routes from 4 December, but that is a decision for them.

"The council has maintained funding for a number of subsidised bus services, particularly where villages have no alternative bus service, despite a predicted £39 million budget gap over the next five years. However it is clear that bus operators just don't have the ability to operate as they once did, which is another stark reminder to national Transport authorities.

"Powers and legislation is one thing but they aren't realistic without the resources to go with them. No local authority in Scotland has anywhere near enough financial resources to backfill commercial bus services. It would take an injection of millions of pounds to provide us with enough budget to run buses similar to the commercial operators"

Around 80% of all bus routes in West Lothian are fully commercial with approximately 20% of bus routes funded by WLC.

Impact on the removal of McGills services in West Lothian

Please note: The X38 runs from the Larbert Depot so is not impacted by the cease of services.

 Please also note that further information on local bus services is available at: https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/local-bus