£6 MILLION WASTED ON DAFT IDEA THE PUBLIC NEVER WANTED

When the plans for a ‘driverless’ bus going between Fife and Edinburgh, over the Forth Road Bridge, were reported here two years ago, it was clear from the negative reaction what the public thought.
“A daft idea”, was the general consensus. What were the benefits of it being driverless when there had to be staff on board for “safety reasons”?
Would passengers relish the prospect of being driven over the bridge by a computer?
Would the money not be better spent increasing capacity to stop people being left standing when their bus flies past with the “full” signs up?
For all negative public feedback, the politicians and bus companies obviously knew better.
They ploughed on with words like “revolutionary”, “innovative”, “world first” and “proud” rolling off their tongues.
Now after just more than a year the scheme has been scrapped because of a lack of passengers. The early press releases gushed about a 10,000 a week capacity.
In April last year, Scottish Government Transport Minister Kevin Stewart said: “This is an exciting milestone for this innovative and ambitious project, and I very much look forward to seeing Project CAVForth take to the roads next month.”
“Our trunk road network can provide a wide range of environments as a diverse testing ground, and the ground-breaking and globally significant project will really help Scotland establish its credentials on the world stage.”
Stagecoach UK managing director Carla Stockton-Jones added: “We are excited to introduce the UK’s first autonomous bus fleet in east Scotland which is also home to our headquarters and where it all began over 40 years ago.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of transport innovation with this project that marks a significant milestone for public transport and we look forward to welcoming our customers on board in the coming months.
And so, after all the hype and PR spin, the bottom line is £6.1 million has been wasted.
More than two-thirds of that coming from the UK government’s £100m Intelligent Mobility Fund with other investment from bus operator Stagecoach, Transport Scotland and industry partners.
The moral of the story is: listen to the public next time.
Don’t waste public money on vanity projects at a time when cuts are being made to the basics such as old people heating their homes this winter.