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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

The Government's Response to the
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's
20th Report

The public transport system

An integrated system will offer considerable advantages to users, not only in terms of convenience and flexibility, but also in terms of journey time, comfort and security, and the overall cost of a journey. The essential requirements for an integrated system...are connecting services; physical provision for connections; clear, up-to-date and easily accessible information about timetables and fares; and through ticketing (4.72, 4.73).

A variety of forms of urban public transport are now available, and should be considered as options when strategic decisions are being made (4.58).

  1. The Government agrees with the Royal Commission's conclusions on the benefits of integrating public transport, and the areas where improvements are needed. Better integration and better interchange, both in terms of public transport and with other types of transport to allow easier switching between modes, are key elements of the Government's White Paper on the future of transport. For public transport to provide an attractive alternative to the convenience of a car, it must operate as a network. With the Government's New Deal for Transport there will be:
  1. In preparing the new local transport plans announced by the White Paper, local authorities will be required to address these matters. For the most part, the Government expects improvements to be gained through the co-operation of public transport providers and through effective partnerships with local authorities. But, where necessary, the Government will strengthen local authorities' powers to secure integration.
  2. The Government agrees that innovation is an important part of providing better public transport. For example, the use of smaller buses, able to operate more flexibly, has become increasingly common and 'guided buses' have demonstrated considerable potential. Local authorities will need to assess the potential of a variety of forms of public transport when preparing their local transport plans.

The urban road network is used not only by cars and goods vehicles but by walkers, cyclists, buses and, in some areas, light rail. The respective priority to be assigned to each class of user is therefore a major policy issue.... A crucial factor in the attractiveness of alternative modes of transport is the priority they receive at junctions (6.26, 6.28).

  1. The Government agrees that the priority to be given to particular classes of road user is a powerful tool for encouraging people to use modes other than the private car. Its New Deal for Transport will create the conditions for people to move around more easily by giving more road space and priority to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. This will be achieved by a different approach in which local authorities will be expected to take a strategic view of traffic management when preparing regional planning guidance (as described in paragraph 113) and development plans, considering how different measures can complement each other. Local transport plans will set out how these measures are to be delivered at the local level.
  2. Local authorities will be expected to give more priority to walking, with reduced waiting times at traffic signals and priority of time at junctions where this supports more walking. Similarly, local authorities will be expected to make changes to traffic-signalled junctions and roundabouts in favour of cyclists, giving them priority where this supports cycling. Bus lanes and other priority measures will help to get buses running on time and encourage more people to use them.
  3. The Government will provide advice and guidance, and disseminate the principles of good practice that emerge from its traffic management research programme and will encourage the use of new technology in traffic management where appropriate and cost effective. The Government will also encourage the development of new appraisal systems that take account of the wider benefits of a more radical and comprehensive approach to traffic management.

An integrated public transport system must include special provision for people with reduced mobility, for example in the form of dial-a-ride services (4.75).

  1. The Government is taking steps through the Disability Discrimination Act to ensure that in future public transport is accessible as a matter of course to disabled people, including those who need to use a wheelchair. To get the most out of investment in accessible public transport, local authorities and transport operators will have to consider the needs of disabled people from start to finish of their journey. This involves tackling barriers in the street, at bus stops and at public transport interchanges. The Government has now announced the timetable for implementing the remaining provisions of this part of the Act: from October 1999, service providers will have to make reasonable adjustments to the way they provide their services if they are impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use, and from 2004 they will also have to tackle physical barriers to using services. When drawing up their local transport plans, local authorities will be expected to address accessibility issues. Guidance will be drawn up to help them. Transport operators are in any case pursuing initiatives separately from the Act, and this will be actively encouraged by Quality Partnerships in buses, and within the existing regulatory framework for rail.

It has been suggested that a single regulator should be established for the rail and bus industries. While there may be a good case for that, we do not believe that the functions of such a regulator in relation to the bus industry ought to extend beyond those functions exercised at present by the Traffic Commissioners and (to the extent that this remains relevant within a new statutory framework) regulation of competition (4.78).

Whether there is a single regulator in future or there continues to be a separate regulator for the rail industry, the present statutory duties [of the Rail Regulator] should be extended to include facilitating journeys that cover more than one mode (4.78).

  1. The Government has not proposed a single bus and rail regulator. It considers that competition regulation for the bus industry is best exercised by the Director General of the Office of Fair Trading, using the enhanced powers provided by the Competition Bill at present before Parliament.
  2. Part of the role of the proposed Strategic Rail Authority will be to promote the use of the railway within an integrated transport system, and to work closely with local and national organisations to promote better integration. The White Paper on the future of transport also sets out the Government's intention to set up a Commission for Integrated Transport, to provide advice to Government on the implementation of an integrated transport policy. Part of its role will be to foster consensus among transport providers. This will provide an added push towards integration.
  3. The Government will enhance the Rail Regulator's existing duties by a new duty to have regard to statutory guidance from the Secretary of State on his broad policy objectives for the passenger and freight railway.

Promoting bus travel

Buses should have a central place in an environmentally sustainable transport system. To achieve that, major improvements are needed in several respects. There must be a much stronger focus by operators on customers and on customer care, with staff trained in customer relations. Operators will have to undertake major investment in new buses offering a high standard of comfort and with low floors for easy boarding. These buses must as a minimum meet EC stage III standards for emissions. In urban areas they should preferably be fuelled by natural gas or have hybrid propulsion which enables them to operate without emissions for part of the time (4.44).

In order to make buses an attractive alternative to car travel, we believe local authorities will have to play a more interventionist role than at present. The Eighteenth Report concluded that the effects of deregulation on bus services had been largely negative. We have not received any information that would lead us to revise that judgement (4.49). We do not regard public transport as an activity where it is appropriate to promote, and rely upon, competition to ensure an efficient and attractive service to customers (4.77).

We believe...that, to be effective, the quality partnership approach will require legislation, and that local authorities certainly require stronger powers in other directions such as obtaining information about services. Given such legislation the quality partnership approach may be more appropriate than franchising in certain parts of the country, but we believe franchising on the London model is the right solution for major conurbations (4.51).

If a system of franchising is generally adopted, and in the light of the requirements for investment in new buses and the many other demands for investment faced by local authorities, we see no particular merit in local authorities retaining ownership of the bus undertakings they still own (4.50).

Within the structure of the kind we envisage, we see no reason why the private sector should not be able to expand considerably the provision of bus services (4.52).

  1. The Government agrees that buses should be the focus of an efficient transport system. The White Paper makes it clear that better buses - clean, comfortable, reliable and convenient - are an essential part of the New Deal for Transport. Bus lanes and other priority measures will help get buses running on time. A first-rate and modern bus industry will make an important and cost-effective contribution to tackling congestion and pollution at the local level. By giving buses greater priority and improving information and networks, more people can be encouraged to use buses. Increasing passenger numbers could transform the economics of bus operations, opening new horizons in quality, reliability and network expansion.
  2. The Government will introduce legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows to put Quality Partnerships on a statutory basis. Through Quality Partnerships local authorities have provided traffic management schemes which assist bus services (bus lanes, priority at junctions, park and ride) with bus operators providing better quality (in terms of comfort, 'greenness', accessibility and staff training), improved marketing, better integration and more reliable services. Such partnerships have proved successful in raising standards and increasing bus patronage - typically by 10-20% - and influencing modal choice. Putting these partnerships on a statutory footing will enable local authorities to require operators to meet certain standards of service quality in order to use the facilities provided by the local authority as part of the Quality Partnership. This will give local authorities greater influence over the provision of bus services and their marketing, and will enable then to encourage the provision of easy access buses.
  3. In some circumstances Quality Partnerships may not be sufficient to guarantee the necessary improvements. Legislation will therefore be introduced to give powers to local authorities, where it is in the public interest, to enter into Quality Contracts for bus services. These would mark a real change from the present and would involve operators bidding for exclusive rights to run bus services on a route or group of routes, on the basis of a local authority service specification and performance targets. Government will apply the experience from the best-value approach to contracting which it is introducing to improve the quality and efficiency of services in local government.
  4. Quality Contracts will be subject to Ministerial consent for each local authority that wished to adopt such an approach (and following devolution, the consent of the National Assembly for Wales or the Scottish Executive). The circumstances in which Quality Contracts might be considered will be the subject of national guidance, drawn up in consultation with local government. Initially, a small number of pilots could be used to demonstrate the contribution of Quality Contracts to developing bus networks and responding to what the passenger wants.
  5. The New Deal for Transport will prompt improvements in the image of buses, in order to attract people who are used to the style and comfort of modern cars. The latest generation of buses demonstrates an increasing recognition of the importance of interior design quality and comfort. The Government is keen to work with the operating and manufacturing industry to promote high-quality design. It wants to see a modern bus which is environmentally friendly and designed to carry people with children and shopping in comfort, and is looking to the industry to respond to this challenge with a bus designed for the 21st Century.

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Published 23 December 1998
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