Time to consider the compulsory purchase of Edinburgh bus station - Susan Dalgety

Bus stations are rarely attractive places. There is often an air of despair hanging over them, as if the people queuing up for a long-distance coach would much rather be elsewhere – on a train or even a plane – but know they can’t afford the luxury of fast, comfortable travel.

Edinburgh Bus Station at St Andrew Square may have to close because the owners want to develop the site

But Edinburgh’s depot, a few metres away from Harvey Nicks, is a bright, welcoming place with friendly staff and easy to follow signage. Even the toilets are clean.

The news that the owners of the site – Coal Pension Properties – do not intend renewing the bus station’s lease when it comes up for renewal in three years is a disaster. The council, which runs the station, is scrambling to find an alternative city centre location, but their options are limited. Edinburgh city centre is hardly awash with empty sites large enough to accommodate a bus depot.

One option being looked at is the Ingliston Park and Ride, but that can only ever be a temporary solution. A bus station needs to be in the heart of the city it serves, whether it is Edinburgh or New York, the same as its main rail station. As a spokesperson for the Edinburgh Bus Users Group correctly pointed out last week, a bus station is not the same as an airport, and any suggestion of an out-of-centre site is “poppycock”.

The city’s transport chief, Councillor Scott Arthur, says he is disappointed that “such a modern and well used piece of Edinburgh’s sustainable transport infrastructure may be lost”, so let’s hope he is bringing all his considerable energies to finding a solution. Even if it means the compulsory purchase of the current city centre site by the council.

Compulsory purchase powers are for projects that are considered to be “in the public interest”, and while the process can be long and complex and not always successful, I don’t think the council has any alternative but to pursue this route if Coal Pension Properties won’t change their mind.

A public transport system, to be successful, needs to be easy to use. Moving Edinburgh’s bus station to a location on the edge of the city would put it out of reach of most of its passengers. Let’s hope it stays put.