Bus groups unite to promote their green credentials

The five major public transport groups (Arriva, FirstGroup, Go-Ahead, National Express and Stagecoach) have launched a ‘Greener Journeys’ campaign in conjunction with the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT). The manifesto for the campaign, ‘The One Billion Challenge’ recommends a number of policy initiatives designed to encourage modal shift to deliver higher savings in CO2 emissions than currently proposed by the Government. It claims that if people switch from car to bus or coach for just one journey in twenty-five, then one billion fewer car journeys would be made over a three year period. The campaign organisers want the Government to set targets for local authorities to deliver modal shift through interventions such as bus priority, park-and-ride and parking policy.

Traffic Commissioner demands more staff

The Statutory Traffic Commissioner, Philip Brown, has stated in his annual report that the regional traffic commissioners have been provided with insufficient resources to discharge their important bus monitoring responsibilities effectively – Philip Brown complains that he has previously raised his concerns over the very low number of bus compliance officers, but that the Department for Transport had yet to take any corrective action and that, as a result, passengers were been adversely affected.

Bristol reviews bus network

Bristol City Council has announced that it plans to work with local bus operators on a major review of the city’s bus network – the review will start in 2010 and will involve the other three Greater Bristol unitary authorities in the study of cross-boundary bus services.

National Rail Awards 2009

The Birse Rail and Network Rail team responsible for the ‘Western reactive earthworks’ project won the ‘Outstanding Teamwork Award’ at the National Rail Awards 2009 – St Erth station was highly commended in the ‘Small Station of the Year’ category.

Devon and Torbay plan joint Local Transport Plan Three (LTP3)

Devon County Council and Torbay Council have announced that they intend to prepare and submit a joint local transport plan three for the five years commencing 1 April 2011 – the councils intend to work closely with public transport operators (bus, coach and rail), the Highways Agency and the management of Exeter airport in the compilation of the joint plan.

Dispute over the legality of bus lanes goes to High Court

A test case relating to the legality of bus lanes is to be heard by the High Court, as there are a large number of outstanding appeals from drivers who have been fined for entering this dedicated road space – the test case will determine the required correct signs and regulations for a bus lane to comply with the terms of the Transport Act 2000 and therefore enable local authorities to penalise drivers.

Greater Bristol unitaries fail to make competition shortlist

The four unitary councils for the Greater Bristol sub-region (Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) have failed to make the shortlist for the sustainable travel towns competition run by the Department for Transport (DfT) – the nine congestion performance areas, including Greater Bristol, were all invited to bid for a share of three year funding totalling twenty-nine million pounds.

The four short-listed cities and conurbations are Nottingham, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and West Midlands.

People

Peter Mann has been appointed as the new service director for transport at Bristol City Council from January 2010 – Peter is currently the assistant head of transport at Oxfordshire County Council.

And finally,

The decision by North Somerset Council to temporarily ‘turn-off’ the traffic lights at a road junction in Portishead has resulted in a significant reduction of approximately eighty per cent in delays to vehicles, including local buses – pedestrian waiting times have also been reduced considerably.