MINISTERS have been urged to create a publicly-owned bus company to take charge of services across the country.

A transport union leader called for the nationalisation of bus services across Scotland in order to protect services and keep fares down.

Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (STTA) union leader Manuel Cortes said there was a "crisis" in bus service provision in Scotland.

The call came after cuts were announced to services in the Highlands.

Cortes challenged Transport Minister Humza Yousaf to deliver on a pledge to bring Scotland’s bus industry back into public hands

The Scottish Government was reported to be planning the biggest shake-up of the sector since Margaret Thatcher’s programme of deregulation in the 1980s.

Under current rule, private operators can set up services where they like and often cherry-pick the most profitable routes.

However, it was reported that a new Transport Bill is being planned to allow councils to establish Lothian Buses-style municipal bus companies, allowing public versus private bidding wars for newly-franchised routes.

Cortes said Yousaf should go further and appoint a publicly-owned company to take over the running of services from private operators.

He said: "It's clear there is a crisis in the provision of bus services for remote communities in Scotland. It's time for the Scottish Government to step up to the plate to create a national bus company to ensure that all communities have access to 21st Century bus services."

Cortes has warned cuts to bus services could leave workers and students in a Black Isle community effectively stranded.

A re-tendering exercise for Highland Council subsidised services to Culbokie has led to Stagecoach losing the franchise, which will now be operated by Inverness company D&E coaches. As a consequence, Stagecoach has decided not to run its commercial services through Culbokie.

Residents now fear they won’t be able to commute to Inverness for work and students living in the village will be unable to reach the University of the Highlands and Islands campus by public transport.

In response to Cortes's call for bus nationalisation, a spokesperson from the Scottish Government's transport agency said ministers wanted local councils to have the option of running bus services

The Transport Scotland spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government is concerned about the state of the bus industry, with patronage that has been continually declining since at least the 1960s but a decline which is not uniform across the whole of Scotland.

“We have no plans for wholesale re-regulation but we are committed to promoting positive change and partnership working to improve bus services. The Government is committed to ensuring that local authorities have a range of viable options for improving bus services and including where appropriate, franchising or municipal operation.”

However, a spokesperson for the industry body, the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK criticised Cortes's call for a nationalised service.

A spokesperson said: “Mr Cortes’ comments would do nothing to address the difficulties of rural bus service provision except pass the full costs and financial risk to local authorities already struggling under constrained budgets.

"Rather than advocate for costly and pointless changes to regulation , Mr Cortes would better serve his members by working with bus operators, local authorities and other stakeholders to deliver better bus services under the current framework “