Thousands of Glaswegians travel around Glasgow on buses each day. It’s by far the most popular forms of public transport in the city.
Most of the buses on this list are First Bus, although other buses are avaliable - a majority of the everyday routes in Glasgow are run by First. Other operators in Glasgow include: Citybus, Stagecoach, McGill’s, and JMB.
Glasgow has one of the best public transport systems in the country - as unreliable as they can sometimes be - there’s always options to get around, be it via subway, train, or bus.
Even moreso now that McGill’s have partnered with First Bus to rescue the night bus service - which would have severely impacted Glasgow’s nightlife and public transport services at night.
That being said, Glasgow buses are mental - full of some of the best (and worst) patter you can find in the city - there’s even a song about it by Hamish Imlach, the 37 bus - you can listen to it here!
This list would not be possible without Wishaw Bus Spotter, Aidan Doyle, who provided many of the dramatic shots of the buses below - for more bus pics, check out his Flickr account.
As far as bus spotters go, Aidan is one of the most popular in Scotland - with his pictures of buses reaching upwards of 1.5m lifetime views online since he began the account in 2016.
Here are the best and worst bus services in Glasgow, according to our readers:
1. BEST & WORST: 240
The 240 is a complete circus of a bus - either way you go, either arriving or leaving Glasgow from Motherwell or Wishaw - travelling through most of North Lanarkshire and the East End of Glasgow. As far as mental buses go, it’s one of the craziest. The N240 night service is even crazier, you’re just as likely to meet a lifelong friend as you are to make a public transport nemesis.
2. BEST: 201
The 201 from Hairmyres to Hamilton via East Kilbride is a pleasant jaunt on the bus - and one of the easiest and most leisurely ways to travel between the South Lanarkshire towns.
3. BEST: X11
From Wishaw through Motherwell and then straight on to the M8 to come out at Strathclyde University and onto Buchanan Bus Station - it’s quick as a whippet, although temporary traffic lights and rush hour traffic can have you stuck in Wishaw and Motherwell longer than the very short estimated time of arrival of around 30-40 minutes. It’s been a reliable service for Glasgow uni students from North Lanarkshire for years now.
4. WORST: 3
One GlasgowWorld reader brought up the 3 - travelling through Partick, the City Centre, Silverburn, and then into Govan Bus Station. It’s a great tour of the city, but one GlasgowWorld reader put down the service for the amount of ‘ghost buses’ which allegedly never show up in person.