Announced six years ago, Glasgow’s first bus rapid transit scheme began operating in 2015, but HUGH DOUGHERTY questions whether it lives up to the promise and whether it will ever be extended
Fastlink is a great name for the £40million all-new bus rapid transit (BRT) route conceived in 2011 to serve Glasgow’s new super-hospital on the south bank of the Clyde at Shieldhall and developed by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), Glasgow City Council, Transport Scotland, the Scottish Government and Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board.
It promised a revolutionary approach to bus transport in the city, with images of specially branded Wright StreetCars running on dedicated busways, with conductors on board to offer high standards of customer service.
And there was the promise of converting the route, which would also link the city centre with the Scottish Event Campus and the Braehead shopping centre in Renfrewshire, to tram or trolleybus operation at some point in the future.
The normally pro-car local press became supportive, and a journalist on the Evening Times, confused by the concept of the StreetCar — described as offering a bus experience close to modern tra…
