FIRST Group says it is waiting “with interest” to discover how much it and other bus operators will be charged to use the Galashiels Transport Interchange.

The comment from the company came after a third report was ordered last week into the operational viability of the £5.2m facility which is due to open in June.

As previously revealed in these columns, a report on the building’s business model from project manager Ewan Doyle was due to be presented to a full meeting of Scottish Borders Council on April 2 but that document, asking councillors to approve a subsidy of 93p for every outgoing bus journey, was pulled at the last minute.

Mr Doyle had calculated that the departure charge levied on bus operators should be £2.68 excluding VAT, compared to the 35p charge for each journey out of the town’s old bus station in Stirling Street.

He said that without the subsidy, which would reduce the charge to £1.75, there was a risk bus companies would boycott the facility which, from September, will also service rail passengers.

Mr Doyle revealed that tenants of the three-storey building, which will open 21 hours a day and be staffed around the clock, would have to pay a service charge to the council of £60 per square metre.

Also withdrawn from the April 2 meeting was a private paper containing details of the cost to SBC of the recommended bus subsidy, the predicted income and expenditure of the interchange, the tenancy uptake and an “estimated deficit” on running costs.

Last week, a single updated report on the operating model was presented to a session of SBC’s executive, a spokesperson explaining it had been taken in private “to allow commercially sensitive information, which is required for councillors to make an appropriate and informed decision, to be heard”.

But it transpires that, after a 30-minute discussion, no such decision was taken and yet another report has been ordered.

“A decision of the Galashiels Transport Interchange was deferred by the executive committee and further information was requested,” said a council spokesperson after the private meeting.

“It has not yet been decided if the report will go the executive or the full council or whether it will be considered in private or public.” It is understood the “further information” relates to the position of bus operators regarding the proposed charges which will be levied against them.

A spokesperson for First Group stated: “The new bus station is a much improved facility for the area. We’re aware of ongoing discussions regarding departure charges and await the outcome with interest.” The interchange will be run by SBC which has already pumped £3.4m into the project, with the balance met from Euro funding.

Like the £3.5m which will be borrowed by the council as its contribution to the Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre at Tweedbank, the interchange loan will be repaid over 30 years at an annual cost of around £200,000.

However, the council spokesperson has confirmed that the annual loan repayment will not be factored into the facility’s operating plan.