DRUMCHAPEL’S long fought battle for direct transport to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital will come to an end this month.

G15 Buses secured permission to implement a minibus services running from the north-west Glasgow suburb to the Govan-based hospital earlier this year and it will be launched at the end of this month.

It will be a "proof of concept" initially to work out any problems in the idea.

The charity is now in the midst of encouraging residents who backed their gruelling campaign to come forward to use the service.

Organiser Will Thomson told our sister paper, the Evening Times: “This is our gift to Drumchapel, from Drumchapel. We’ve all put in a lot of work, I’m even giving up my own minibus, and it would be nice if we could get that belief at the community end.

“Build it and they will come, as our director told me, and he made the point that we have got to do this for the people. This message is: look out for the yellow bus.”

Organisers gained charity status for the former DrIFT group in order to pursue to the campaign last year.

The charity fought to receive a coveted section 19 permit of the Transport Act 1985 which enables not-for-profit organisations to operate transport facilities.

It has taken almost four years but it’s a dream which has finally come to fruition.

Will added: “When we were first told we weren’t getting a service everybody was up in arms, then we got that tiny service for a couple of weeks and everybody was up in arms. It has taken four years but we’re doing it, we’re doing it for everybody.

“We have a few final checks in the pipeline to ensure the bus is secure and safe but it’s really starting and we want people to engage with us.

“We will be running the bus as required. People keep saying ‘it’s a pity it doesn’t do this, it’s a pity it doesn’t do that’ but the idea is we will do our best to do what’s asked of us. We need members though.”

To become a member contact the charity via its Facebook page.