Dumfries and Galloway families isolated by bus cuts demand urgent action
Survey highlights severe impact on mobility for disabled and low-income residents
Disabled residents and low-income families across rural Dumfries and Galloway say they have been left “totally isolated” by cuts to bus services.
The impact that the reconfiguration of the region’s bus network has had on communities has been made clear in a damning new survey of almost 500 people.
The N76/Rural Services Bus Survey, carried out by the N76 Group between January and February this year, gathered 483 responses from communities along the A76 corridor, stretching from Glencairn and Closeburn through to Kirkconnel and New Cumnock.
It found the region’s bus network is “no longer meeting the basic mobility needs of residents,” with the loss of evening and Sunday services, unreliable timetables and the disappearance of direct links to Cumnock, Ayr and Edinburgh among the biggest concerns raised.
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The survey found the impact falls hardest on those without access to a car, including older people, disabled residents, young people and low-income households, many of whom described feeling “abandoned” since last summer’s changes.
Another respondent said the lack of an evening service meant they knew “people who have had to change jobs” as a result of being unable to get home from work.
Families also described the daily toll of poor connections. One parent told the survey: “My daughter has an almost two hour journey in the morning to get to college in Dumfries and the same in late afternoon, due to bad bus service connection between bus arriving in Dumfries and next bus to the college.”
Another resident said simply: “The service provided is broken.”
More frequent services were the top priority overall, cited 363 times, followed by calls for later evening buses, cited 311 times, and a better weekend service, cited 271 times.
The findings have prompted Mid and Upper Nithsdale Councillor Andrew Wood to table a motion for this Thursday’s full council meeting, demanding immediate action rather than waiting for the outcome of a year-long transport review already underway.
Councillor Wood’s motion states: “We call on Dumfries and Galloway council to consider the content of the recent survey undertaken by N76/Rural services Bus Survey, that sets out the many concerns of residents within Mid and Upper Nithsdale which may well be reflected across the whole of our rural communities within Dumfries and Galloway.”
The motion acknowledges the council’s wider review, but argues residents cannot afford to wait for it to conclude.
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It states: “In the interim we would ask that some of the measures presented within the survey are implemented at the earliest opportunity so that our vulnerable, young and working population are not left isolated.”
The motion, seconded by fellow Mid and Upper Nithsdale Councillor Jim Dempster, also calls for further lobbying of the Scottish Government for support.
The council is continuing with its wider “root and branch” review of the bus network, launched following the withdrawal of Stagecoach West Scotland from the region in August 2025.
A further update on that review, including proposals for a minimum level of bus service across Dumfries and Galloway, is due before councillors on 3 November, with a final report expected in February 2027.
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