A BARRHEAD resident claims the town is being cut off from Scotland’s largest city because of its failing bus system.

Phil Mews has insisted buses which travel to neighbouring Paisley every 10 minutes must be reduced and replaced with services to Glasgow.

The professional writer, who lives in Auchenback, labelled the frequency with which bus operators run services to Paisley as “nonsensical” when compared with those to Glasgow or Silverburn.

Travelling to and from Govan for work has left Phil desperate to find a solution – and he believes a tweak here and there by bus operator McGill’s could solve the problem.

He told the Barrhead News: “I gave up my car a year ago to use public transport because I work in Glasgow and parking is so poor but also so that I could be more environmentally friendly.

“The frustration is there are two buses an hour from Auchenback to Glasgow and it’s a big centre of employment.

“Whereas, buses run every 10 minutes to Paisley.

“And I don’t believe as many work in Paisley as Glasgow or Silverburn – it’s nonsensical.

“Part of the problem is the buses finish ridiculously early. The buses back are few and far between.”

Explaining how he’d like the problem to be tackled, Phil said: “What I’m suggesting is reduce services to Paisley and allocate them to Silverburn – even just one every 20 minutes.

“I don’t think it would be a big deal to take one bus an hour out of the Paisley service.

“It would make a big difference to the people of Auchenback and Barrhead.”

David Allison, of East Renfrewshire Greens, said the issue of poor bus connections came up time and time again during his council election campaign.

He added: “Local authorities in connecting councils need to work together to ensure that there’s a public transport network in place that’s useful, affordable and environmentally friendly.”

However, McGill’s is unwilling to alter its services due to costs.

A spokeswoman for the bus company said: “McGill’s currently offers a half-hourly service to Silverburn and Glasgow city centre from Auchenback on our Service 3.

“There are no plans to increase the frequency to every 20 minutes.

“At present, we have five buses committed to delivering the half-hourly service.

“To move it to every 20 minutes would require two additional buses, at a cost of around £300,000 a year.

“In these straitened times, we cannot consider the additional costs these extra buses would bring to the business.

“Our Service 51 between Auchenback and Paisley is well used and there are no immediate plans to alter its frequency.”