The report, ‘SPT: Delivering for East Renfrewshire’, shows more than £1.8 million of capital funding was awarded to support a range of sustainable transport projects in the area between 2017 and 2021. 

A further £500,000 was also awarded to East Renfrewshire Council in 2021/22 to support their delivery. 

The investment includes £525,000 in bus infrastructure in local areas like Barrhead, Giffnock, Thornliebank and Newton Mearns.

This has resulted in upgraded bus shelters, high access curbs for those with mobility issues and new real-time passenger information displays.

SPT has also invested over £1.1million in the ongoing delivery of East Renfrewshire Council’s A77 Strategic Cycle Corridor projects, which are designed to improve active travel routes and promote walking, wheeling and cycling.

It will see over 5km of segregated walking and cycling infrastructure introduced from Maidenhill to beyond Eastwood Toll, linking to the Glasgow city boundary. 

Funding of £300,000 also enabled construction works to start on a project to improve the shared-use path between North Hillhead Road and the M77 overbridge.

SPT has also provided £657,000 towards the design and delivery of park and ride facilities in East Renfrewshire.

This helped the council build a 50-space extension to the existing park and ride in Barrhead train station - on the former training ground of Arthurlie FC - which brings the total capacity to around 150 spaces.

East Renfrewshire is one of is one of 12 council areas to benefit from funding provided by SPT, which also covers East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde, Glasgow, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, West Dunbartonshire and the Helensburgh and Lomond area of Argyll and Bute. 

The transport body pointed out that the cross-council boundary nature of transport and travel means investment in one area will benefit all residents who travel for work or leisure. 

Across the west of Scotland, SPT has supported 6.1 million bus station departures across Buchanan, Hamilton, East Kilbride, Greenock, Braehead and Silverburn in recent years. 

It has sold 515,000 ZoneCard tickets since 2017/18 across the Subway and participating rail and bus operators, and 43.7 million Subway journeys have been taken since 2017. 

It has supported 200 bus services run by around 20 operators on behalf of SPT, and has 33 MyBus services operating in the west of Scotland. 

SPT has also invested in several regional projects in recent years, including the Subway Modernisation Project, its ongoing bus stop and shelter upgrade programme and its Real Time Passenger Information roll out.

Valerie Davidson, chief executive of SPT, said: 

“We continue to deliver a range of services in East Renfrewshire and across the region either directly or on behalf of councils. As this report shows, we have invested more than £2 million over the last five years in sustainable transport projects in the area.

“SPT’s activities support the west of Scotland’s regional transport network to the benefit of all residents who travel across the area. While the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in significant impacts on our operational activities due to reduced travel demand, the majority of services were maintained to ensure transport remained in place for key workers and those making essential trips.”