GLASGOW MSPs have hit out after the Evening Times' revealed the Fastlink transport scheme will not be complete in time for the city hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Despite assurances the project would be delivered for the event, only part of the overall £40million programme will be available and there will be no new vehicles on the route.

Fastlink is intended to have specially designed buses using segregated roadways beside the River Clyde from the city centre to the Southern General.

The Evening Times revealed yesterday the programme would be finished in 2015 for the opening of the new South Glasgow Hospitals at the Southern General site.

Only some segregated road space from Fastlink will be available to transport passengers during the Games and Fastlink will not open until the following year.

Plans for Fastlink were being developed before the Finance Secretary John Swinney said in 2009 the Scottish Government would contribute and said it would be a key component of the Commonwealth Games.

But the amount to come from the Government was not revealed until 2011, when Mr Swinney said it would pay the entire bill for phase 1 from the city centre to the SECC and the Southern General.

Maryhill and Springburn MSP Patricia Ferguson had asked Mr Swinney in January last year how much would be paid and warned then time was running out to have it completed for 2014.

Today, she said: "It is very disappointing it now appears the connections that should be available to transport athletes and spectators will not be completed.

"The Government was reminded that without investment at the appropriate time this infrastructure could not be delivered on time."

Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie said an incomplete transport system would give a poor impression of the city and better infrastructure could not come quick enough.

He said: "It is a dismal reflection of the low priority given to public transport in a city with a substandard bus service where hundreds of millions of pounds has been pumped into improvements for motorists.

"Half of Glasgow does not have access to a car so schemes such as Fastlink should be in the fast lane, not stuck on the hard shoulder.

"Visitors from other European cities will be shocked at the backward and ramshackle public transport Glaswegians have to put up with every day.

"I recently visited the Southern General to discuss transport issues and it is abundantly clear decent bus links can't come soon enough for patients, visitors and staff."

stewart.paterson@ eveningtimes.co.uk