Glasgow
United Kingdom ยท Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT)
Glasgow's public transport remains structurally fragmented under bus deregulation, with three non-co-located city-centre hubs, multiple bus operators, and limited multi-modal fare integration beyond pre-purchased ZoneCard/Roundabout products. 2025 brought meaningful progress โ Subway contactless PAYG with capping, improved Traveline Scotland app, an approved Regional Bus Strategy heading toward franchising, and a free-travel pilot โ but Glasgow still sits well below Swiss or London-style integration.
How integrated public transport is โ quantitative reach and qualitative interchange combined
How easy it is to get around without a car. A separate measure, reported alongside the index.
How evenly distributed transit access is across the city
Three fragmented city-center hubs separated by exposed 5โ12 minute walks lack seamless interchange despite pockets of excellence like Govan, with Buchanan Bus Station requiring urgent redevelopment.
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- Signage5/10
- Mode distance4/10
- Physical experience5/10
Pre-purchase season tickets like ZoneCard offer multimodal fare integration across trains, Subway and buses, but casual passengers face separate charges per mode and lack London-style automatic contactless capping across operators.
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- Single platform / contactless4/10
- Interchange penalty absence4/10
- Multimodal products6/10
Traveline Scotland (rebuilt 2024, with live tracking, alighting alerts and disruption info in 2025) provides solid multi-modal planning, supplemented by Google Maps and operator apps, but there is no unified PTA app or Citymapper-level depth.
Deregulated bus-rail operations lack timetable coordination, night services collapse entirely after 23:30, and shared mobility operates independently outside transit ticketing systems.
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- Timed connections3/10
- Off-peak integration3/10
- MaaS reach3/10