MPs told suitable regulatory tools are already available

 
Graham Vidler, chief executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said he felt there was a greater role that central government could take in defining the minimum standards people could expect

 
Transport operators rejected suggestions from MPs on the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee last week that the government should investigate the potential for integrated bus and rail contracts.

Responding to a question on the issue from West Dorset MP Chris Loder, Richard Stevens, the managing director of Go South West, said there were already suitable regulatory tools available.

“There are places whereby fully contracted models can work,” he said. “We have put together the Transport for Cornwall project. Working with the railway, we have managed to do rail integration. We have managed to keep bus mileage in Cornwall at a pre-pandemic level. We have managed to connect most of the communities through the existing legislation that is available.”

When probed by Loder, Stevens said he was not in favour of a fully integrated bus and rail contract that the government would let as “all the tools already exist to achieve the outcomes”.

Mark Hopwood, managing director of train operator Great Western Railway, said he pretty much agreed with Stevens’ point of view, although he said it was perhaps a weakness that there was no base position of a requirement to provide transport.

I don’t think I support having joint contracts. I know that they have granted them in places like the Netherlands… The competencies are quite different.

“I don’t think I support having joint contracts,” Hopwood continued. “I know that they have granted them in places like the Netherlands… The competencies are quite different.”

Meanwhile, Graham Vidler, chief executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said he felt there was a greater role that central government could take in defining the minimum standards people could expect.

“At the moment, we have an absence of that,” he said. Vidler added the government had consulted on the rural transport conundrum, and the National Bus Strategy has offered a clearer definition of socially and economically necessary services.

“Both of these strands of work need completion,” he said. “I do not think it follows from that that central government should get involved, for example, in designing networks or setting contracts. I think the existing relationships between operators and local authorities are the appropriate place to take forward delivery of the minimum standards.”

Fare pilot leads to 15% growth

Cornwall’s low bus fare pilot is already achieving significant passenger growth, MPs on the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee were told last week.

Speaking at an evidence session convened to probe rural transport, Go South West managing director Richard Stevens revealed Cornish bus operators were seeing growth of 15% year-on-year.

“In the summer season, when tourists visit the south-west, there is another 15% on that,” he revealed. “We are seeing 30% in
peak summer.”

However, Stevens dismissed suggestions that this passenger growth had been achieved solely as a result of the low fares pilot.

It is about connectivity. It is about integration with rail

“It is about connectivity,” he said. “It is about integration with rail. It is about an interoperable, multi-operator ticket with no price premium, with a standardised product suite and standardised pricing across all bus operators.

“That is helping to drive passenger growth, and passenger growth among young people. They are the acquirers. That is where we can win hearts and minds; 95% of my young people are back at pre-Covid levels.”

 
This story appears in the latest issue of Passenger Transport.

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