SCOTLAND'S biggest local authority made nearly £2.5 million in bus lane fines last year.
Figures show Glasgow City Council made £2,469,420 from fines issued to drivers wrongly using the city's 16 camera-enforced bus lanes last year.
The local authority has previously said the money goes towards administering and collecting fines.
But an investigation found the cost of sending out and collecting penalties totalled just £437,453 - leaving a profit of more than £2m (£2,031,967).
A spokesman said the surplus is invested in local transport strategies.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the most profitable bus lane camera is on Glassford Street, where 23,250 motorists were caught in 2013, netting £545,280 for the council.
There are a total of 173 bus lanes of varying lengths across Glasgow but, of these, only 15 are regulated by cameras that produce automatic fines for cars caught in them.
The £60 fine is reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days.
A 16th camera, on Cathedral Street, was removed in March last year after a section of the road was closed to traffic.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "Money from bus lane penalty charge notices is invested in transport strategies.
"These are a balanced strategy concentrating on promoting and enhancing sustainable transport options.
"These include walking, cycling, public transport, investment in roads through tackling key congestion points, essential links to development areas and links to enable public transport to provide effective services."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article