TravelWatch Southwest
Newslog 99 Monday 23 November 2009

Station Champions report

The Department for Transport (DfT) has pledged fifty million pounds towards improvements at the ten most dilapidated railway stations identified in the review of stations undertaken by the ‘station champions’, Chris Green (former chief executive of Virgin Trains) and Sir Peter Hall (planning academic) – none of the ten worst stations are located in South West England.. The review by the ‘station champions’ calls for minimum station standards (which should be incorporated in future franchise agreements), additional car and cycle parking spaces and the preparation of travel plans for many stations. The review proposes that the funding for station improvements should be increased by twenty-five per cent to approximately eight hundred million pounds per year from 2014.

Plymouth CityBus financial details of sale

Plymouth City Council has now disclosed that the preferred bidder, Go-Ahead Group plc, has offered twenty million and two hundred thousand pounds for a one hundred per cent shareholding in Plymouth CityBus – the city council has stated that that Go-Ahead had offered the following undertakings if the acquisition is completed:-

i) retain existing trading name (it is expected that a revised vehicle livery will be introduced)

ii) reduce the average age of the bus fleet to eight years by 31 March 2011 and eliminate step entrance vehicles from ‘front line services’ by the same date

iii) make no changes to the company’s ‘historic’ route network for a minimum period of six months

iv) give the city council ninety days notice of any changes to the company’s ‘historic’ route network

v) maintain existing commercial school services for a minimum period of three years

A meeting of the full city council on Monday 30 November will decide whether to proceed with the sale of Plymouth CityBus to Go-Ahead Group plc.

More regional funds for Kemble – Swindon redoubling

The transport and infrastructure board of South West Councils has approved a proposal to transfer thirty million pounds of money from the Regional Funding Allocation (RFA) to the project to double the existing single railway track between Kemble and Swindon, following the decision to refuse planning permission for the Westbury eastern by-pass. The RFA submission from the South West region last February had allocated an initial twenty million pounds of funding for the rail scheme – government ministers had advised the board that if the decision to switch funds was not made, the region would lose fifty million pounds of RFA funding. Supporters of the railway project are now awaiting confirmation from Network Rail, which has now completed a detailed costing of the project, that the necessary work can be completed for less than fifty million pounds.

Approval for five sub-regional transport studies

The Department of Transport (DfT) has approved five of the six sub-regional transport studies proposed by South West Councils as part of the ‘Delivering a sustainable transport strategy’ (DaSTS) programme – the five approved studies are Cheltenham/Gloucester, Exeter, South East Dorset, Swindon and Taunton. A decision on the proposed sixth study for Bristol, Bath and Weston-super-Mare is yet to be made. It is expected that the new studies will be led by the related local authorities.

Statutory quality bus partnership for Bath and North East Somerset

Bath and North East Council are drawing up plans for a statutory quality bus partnership scheme for the A367 corridor between Bath and Midsomer Norton – the Council has recently introduced a major bus priority scheme on this corridor with associated improvements to roadside infrastructure and is committed to the introduction of real time information in 2010. The proposed statutory scheme could include commitments to service frequencies, maximum fares, vehicle standards and highway infrastructure.

People

Edward Chorlton, the deputy chief executive and executive director of environment, economy and culture of Devon County Council, has retired after working for the local authority for over forty years.

And finally,

Passenger Focus has taken over publication of the Bus Mystery Traveller Survey, which was previously managed by the Department for Transport (DfT) – the results from the first wave of research, undertaken by Passenger Focus, confirms the ‘widely-held’ perception that bus drivers in Bristol are ‘far less helpful to customers’ than their colleagues in the rest of the region!