The meeting was well attended with over 100 delegates representing public transport interests right across the South West. Following a short introduction and welcome by the Chair, the day began with a presentation on Network Rail in the South West by Dave Ward, Route Director Western Area. This was a refreshingly down-to-earth analysis which gave the audience a real taste of what it is like to be responsible for the railway track in our part of country and the difficulties encountered. Dave spoke about the problems of flooding with photographs of track lying suspended in the air where ballast had simply been washed away from under it. He went on to give statistics on the number of minutes lost because of signalling problems and points failure, explaining with technical information and descriptions of exactly which points were the main culprits what was to be done about the problem in the way of renewal and remote point monitoring.

The Thames Valley appeared to be a black spot when it came to points functioning properly and everyone was relieved to see that the problem was now in the hands of someone with such personal commitment and enthusiasm . Delegates were impressed by the way that Dave was so open about the track problems in his area and the range of managerial, technical and very practical methods that he was adopting to put things right.

Our next speaker was Helen Holland, Leader Bristol City Council and member of the Government's Commission for Integrated Transport

Helen spoke of the likely TIF (Transport Innovation Fund) bid for the Bristol area. The TIF aims to help local authorities reduce congestion on the road network by supporting innovative local transport packages that combine demand management initiatives, such as road user charging and workplace parking charges, with better public transport services and other measures to encourage us to use alternatives to the car.

Before breaking for lunch there was an opportunity for delegates to speak for a maximum of one minute each on a public transport issue of their choice. The speakers included Roger Dixon on 'The need for train services to support Torbay tourism', which highlighted the growth of an area with 135,000 people as well as the rise in short break holidays to Torbay from London, and the consequent need for better rail services.

Anne Lock spoke on 'Greater Bristol Transport Funding' and asked TravelWatch to join the Campaign for Better Transport (previously Transport 2000) to organise a meeting of all MPs in the Bristol Travel to Work Area to begin to coordinate a more effective movement to procure government funds for rail and buses .

Graham Ellis gave an update on the TransWilts railway linking Swindon and Salisbury through a string of Strategically Significant Towns and Cities. Graham explained that services on this line - now cut down to 2 a day - narrowly missed getting additional trains last spring and that new campaigning must continue, with TravelWatch, First Great Western, the Regional Assembly, Wiltshire County Councils and others working together.

Peter Nickol spoke on 'Exeter City Bus Services' and asked for much better buses at evenings and weekends, for a shuttle bus between Exeter St. Davids and Exeter Airport, and a simplification of fare structures.

John Walker spoke on 'Community Railways' and the Future of the Railway White Paper. John pointed out that there was relaxation on the signalling of community railways and that one was now able to "drive to line of sight". This might make it cheaper to run community railways in the future. Mention was also made of the aim to introduce morning and evening commuter services between Minehead and Taunton.

Following lunch, Mark Howarth, Managing Director, Western Greyhound spoke about Quality and Patronage Growth in a Rural Area'. The talk explained the history of the company and how it grew from a single old coach in 1998. Mark explained some of the decisions that had led to the success of the company today, and particular the importance of staff and treating them well, including keeping the "on-side" with good training.

It is obvious that the company takes a great interest in detail of their business, not only in terms of the look of their bus fleet and whether they have comfortable seats - but also how buses are driven, that drivers are happy and welcoming to passengers and that everything in clean and well-kept. Even time-tables have been re-designed to be simpler to read and fares are sensible and straightforward. Mark said that "partnership" was the current buzz-word, and that the company had been successful in part because it had taken the idea of working in partnership to heart. Western Greyhound worked with rail operators, councils and tourist industry. It was through the setting up of strong partnerships that Newquay bus station was completed.

Mark was however concerned about the impact that the UK's failure to secure a derogation for rural bus services from the Working Time directive. The directive applies to all journeys of over 50km and consequently is making it difficult to operators of longer distance rural bus routes.

The meeting also heard about concessionary fares. There had been a great increase in rider-ship but bus companies were not getting the benefits in terms of funds to invest in better vehicles, more vehicles and new routes.