[This is an even more belated post card from the Triglav National Park (see here) and will be the last in the series – some observations from the Austrian side of the Carnic Alps will follow].
We ended our traverse around the core mountain area of the Triglav National Park at the Vrsic pass. In summer there is a regular bus service over the pass and we used it to do a short walk in the beautiful Soca valley to the south before returning over the pass to Kranskja Gora. The bus was very well used and we were pleasantly surprised to find it was free (according to Mike Newbury’s guide in 2006 it was 2 euros). More importantly the service started early enough and was regular enough to be of use not only by tourists but walkers and climbers.
The skill of the bus drivers, on a road that is as narrow as the A82 along Loch Lomond in places and just as busy but has 24 hairpin bends on the Kranskja Gora side, was remarkable. I have never felt so safe in a bus.
While we had approached Triglav from the south (see here), the Vrata valley provides the main access routes to the mountain from the north and has a bus service designed for walkers and climbers. The buses run from 16th June to 1st October and are also free. The first leaves Mojstrana at 4am in the morning and last collects people from the road end at Aljazev Dom at 19.15 (see here). If you had an epic on Triglav and missed the last bus, the mountain refuges have to accommodate people in an emergency. The service also provides access to a number of other mountain routes. Hearing about it got us talking about the possibility of another trip to the National Park using one of the campsites round Mojstrana.
Compare that with Scotland’s two National Parks. There is still no bus service along the road to Ben Lomond from Balmaha to Rowardennan, despite people in the Glasgow conurbation having some of the lowest levels of car ownership in the UK. And while there is a bus service from Aviemore to the car park at Cairn Gorm, the first leaves at 7.07 weekdays (9.20 on a Sunday) and the last leaves the ski centre at 18.12 (18.30 on a Saturday) (see here).
While the Scottish Government’s pilot capped fares scheme in Highland means that bus currently costs £2 and sounds good news, without far more extensive bus services in our National Parks capped fares will make relatively little difference. Scotland’s two National Parks could and should be using examples such as this from abroad (Slovenia is a poorer country) to make the case for better visitor infrastructure (not just public transport but paths, toilets etc). Sadly, they have been failing to do so for 20 years now and nothing they are planning at present will make a significant difference.
Easy to recall the days of the old Macbraynes bus services which connected so many places all up and down the west Coast of Scotland. Fast they never were, reliable , well …usually.
Today the machinery along these routes is become modern, reliable and fairly comfortable. But costs for potential bus operators have never been higher….. Uncertainty too.
With so many routes now clogged by summertime visitors in large vans; so many accidents occurring daily, building to massive queues in a short period, there is no way to run any rural service on fixed schedules. Add to that the essentials of maintenance which have to be carried through to completion during dry warmer weather, and regularity of countryside bus services have never been placed under greater challenges.
Yes, more people would use a bus if the service could be made reliable. But , human nature being innately selfish, until the service be made reliable they will carry on using their own private vehicles. and then of course every vehicle with so few places to stop legitimately ( see Glenfinnan for example) may well end up impeding local transport services, so it never can be?
Unless certain places and routes are placed out of bounds for Private motorists who come to visit, any rural bus services may always be impeded. More free parking places and shuttle buses – so simple in outline- but how can use of any be enforced?