Dave Thompson MSP

Following several communications from Dave Thomson MSP’s Office to Citylink regarding the statistics used to justify the discontinuation of the morning and early afternoon service from Newtonmore to Inverness.

Scottish Citylink is to be congratulated for their agreement to reinstate it from Thursday 5th March.

Mr Thompson SNP MSP for Badenoch said, “There were grave concerns regarding the quality of the data used to arrive at the earlier decision to discontinue this service.

He continued, “Local folk supplied sufficient evidence that this data was flawed and that passenger number did make the service viable.

“Thankfully Citylink have now accepted this and I welcome this and congratulate them on this decision.

The service will be reinstated from Thursday 5th March.

He finished with, “This just shows the power available to communities when they pull together.”

Note:

From: Fraser Smith 
Date: 3 March 2015 15:14:22 GMT
Subject: Scottish Citylink Coaches - M91 0924 Newtonmore to Inverness and 1310 Inverness to Newtonmore

M91 Service 0924 Newtonmore to Inverness and 1310 Inverness to Newtonmore

Further to your recent correspondence with regard to the above services, we have reviewed the performance of these journeys which were withdrawn on Monday 5th January 2015.

I am pleased to advise you that, having taken into account all the data we have available to us and also the representations that have been made to us, we will be reinstating the above journeys with effect from Wednesday 4th March 2015.

I would like to apologise for the short notice of the reinstatement of the service. However we have to satisfy relevant legislation and have only today received official approval for this variation to our registered timetable. I am sure you will agree that it is preferable to have the service reinstated quickly than to wait a few more weeks to allow for this to be publicised.

As such any assistance you can provide in informing the local community would be much appreciated. I can supply an electronic copy of the notices we will be displaying if you require this.

We monitor the performance of our services on an ongoing basis and as such the above journeys will continue to be evaluated throughout the year. I thank you for your interest in Scottish Citylink and trust the above decision meets with your approval.

Regards

Fraser Smith
Commercial Manager

Scottish Citylink Coaches
Buchanan Bus Station
Killermont Street
Glasgow
G2 3NW