DRIVERS have paid more than £1 million in fines for using bus lanes in Glasgow so far this year.

According to a Freedom of Information response, Glasgow City Council collected £1.2m in the first six months of 2015.

Nearly £985,000 was collected in the first three months, followed by £198,459 between April and June.

A statement from the council said the income would be ploughed into transport infrastructure and to deliver their local transport strategy, in accordance with Transport Scotland regulations.

There was no breakdown on which bus lanes generated the most money but previous figures have shown the bus lane in Nelson Mandela Place caught 50,000 drivers in its first six months - 10 times the number captured in the next most 'productive' lane - between July and December last year.

Just 4,885 drivers were caught in the Victoria Road/St Andrew's Cross bus lane during the same time.

The Nelson Mandela lane was introduced on June 30 last year and has been criticised since its inception, with many drivers claiming warning signs were not clear enough. The city council was forced to improve them after a flood of complaints.

As previously reported by the Evening Times, around 68,000 fines were slapped on drivers in the 24-hour lanes in total last year, while a further 37,595 fines were issued by non-24 hour lanes.

There are now 16 camera-monitored bus lanes, with 11 operating 24 hours a day.

Council bosses insist the lanes are needed to keep public transport moving, and say that since their introduction, the number of drivers fined has fallen by more than half, proving they work.

The council is currently consulting on whether to limit the hours of bus lane operation to between 7am and 7pm.

It follows complaints from motorists fined after driving in deserted bus lanes in the early hours of the morning or on days when no buses were running.

The first bus lanes in the city were introduced almost a quarter of a century ago, but until 2012 were enforced by the police. Their role was then taken over by the city council and in April that year enforcement cameras were switched on.

A city council spokesman said: “The point of bus lanes cameras is to reduce offending – and the number of offences has steadily decreased since their initial introduction in 2012, demonstrating that drivers are changing their behaviour and that public transport is getting priority on some of the key routes into and across the city.”