Low carbon transport

The Department for Transport (DfT) has issued a carbon reduction strategy to reduce emissions from domestic transport by fourteen per cent within the next ten years – domestic transport currently accounts for twenty-one per cent of all UK carbon emissions. The strategy sets out policies and proposals to reduce transport sector emissions – among the various public transport initiatives are:-
- a competition among the large urban areas in England to bid for up to twenty-nine million pounds of Government funding to become the country’s first ‘Sustainable Travel City’
- a thirty million pound scheme to encourage bus operators to purchase low emission vehicles
- a five million pound programme to improve cycle facilities at railway stations

Consultation on bus quality contracts

The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a consultation on the draft regulations and guidance for bus quality contract schemes in South West England. The draft bus quality contract regulations include the establishment of a Quality Contract scheme board, comprising a traffic commissioner and two members of a panel appointed by the Secretary of State – the board would scrutinise any proposals from local authorities for quality contracts and make recommendations on whether the correct procedures have been followed and if the public interest criteria have been satisfied.

Gender auditing on public transport

Nine years ago, the Department for Transport (DfT) published the first guidance and checklist for gender auditing on public transport. The Equality Act 2006 has introduced new legal obligations that affect the provision of all public services, including public transport. The DfT has now produced new guidelines for use by managers to raise awareness of the gender differences in the use and experience of public transport by women and men, to assess how well a particular organisation is responding to those differences, to identify priorities for improvement and measure progress towards targets. The checklists for gender auditing on the provision of public transport have also been revised.

Consultation on requirement for bus operators to display information

The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a consultation on the secondary legislation to extend the remit of Passenger Focus to bus and coach passengers – the DfT has published, as part of the consultation, draft regulations requiring bus and coach operators to display information on all vehicles stating who passengers should contact if they have a complaint about the service.

Local Transport Plan guidance

The Department for Transport (DfT) has published Local Transport Plan Guidance – the guidance sets out the importance of transport to the wider local agenda and is to inform the third local transport plans, which are due to be finalised by April 2011.

People

Andy Pitt has been appointed as Managing Director designate of South West Trains and will take over from Stewart Palmer, when he retires in October – Andy is currently the Business Development Director for Stagecoach Rail Group and was previously deputy Managing Director of South West Trains.

And finally,

Stagecoach West are holding a competition for the company’s bus passengers to win the opportunity to give the ‘team talk’ to Cheltenham Town players before their home match against Notts County on Saturday 3 October!