Better Transport

Knowing what responsibilities your local transport authority has can help you to campaign more effectively. It makes it easier for you to decide what you want the authority to do, and gives you more arguments you can use to persuade them. Local transport authorities:

• Have the power to pay for buses that people need
• Must produce local transport plans, including bus strategies
• Must show how their bus strategies help them to increase accessibility, reduce congestion and pollution and improve road safety
• Must monitor bus use in their area
• Must try to make it easier for people to access jobs and services
• Have a duty to consider the transport needs of the elderly and disabled
• Have the power to promote the bus network to meet people’s transport needs
• Local highway authorities have a duty to manage their road network for the benefit of all users, including cyclists and pedestrians

Transport authorities have the power to pay for buses that people need

Every transport authority has the power to pay for bus services which are socially necessary where there is a public transport need, as long as the service wouldn’t have been provided without this subsidy.

They are required to assess local needs for buses and to consider if and how to meet those needs.

They should also produce general policies describing the kinds of services they plan to pay for, from time to time. They tend to have criteria they use to decide whether or not to fund a bus service. The criteria often include cost, the number of people using the bus and so on.

District councils also have the power (through the Transport Act 1985) to pay for local bus services, but they’re not required to assess local needs.

When deciding which bus company should run these additional services, they must consider ‘economy, efficiency and effectiveness’ and pay attention to their own bus strategy, and to environmental issues: the need to reduce or limit traffic congestion, noise and air pollution (Transport Act 2000). In practice, they put the operation of subsidised services out to tender.

Local transport authorities have been given Government guidance (PDF 454K) on making decisions about funding socially necessary services.

Local transport authorities normally secure a local bus service through a competitive tendering process. This is important to ensure that the best value-for-money is obtained in this use of public funds. However, there are circumstances when it is better to ask the bus company already running a route to make the improvements they want in exchange for some extra money (what they call 'de minimis' funding), For example, if the authority wants a more frequent bus on an existing route, it may be appropriate to ask the bus company that already runs the service to do this, rather than involve all bus companies in the area in the process of deciding who should run the more frequent services. This can also avoid problems of passengers having to pay twice to return on the same route, because only one company is providing the service. On the other hand, an evening service on a route may be provided by a different bus company than the one that provides the day-time service because it has offered the authority a better price through a competitive tendering process.

Local transport authorities must produce local transport plans, including bus strategies as part of these plans

Local transport authorities must produce local transport plans. Current plans run out in 2011 and authorities are drafting new ones at the moment. These plans are submitted to the Government. The Government uses the plan to allocate transport spending depending on the quality of the plan and how well it fits with Government objectives.

• Local transport plans must promote ‘safe, integrated, efficient and economic transport’ and must consider guidance from Government
• Local transport plans must consider the needs of the elderly and people with mobility problems
• Bus strategies must explain how the transport authority will make sure appropriate bus services are provided in their area, and must provide a framework for improving buses. (using functions from Transport Act 1968 and 1985). Bus strategies are either separate documents are part of the local transport plan.
• Authorities must consult widely when they prepare both of these documents, and must make copies of them available at a reasonable cost

Read more: Government guidance on producing LTPs

Transport authorities must show how their bus strategies help them to increase accessibility, reduce congestion and pollution and improve road safety

Bus services should meet the transport requirements of people within their area that the authority consider should be met (this needs to be interpreted in the light of the Accessibility and Congestion shared priorities)

Government guidance on bus strategy states: ‘Improved bus services must be at the heart of a LTP designed to improve access to jobs and services, particularly for those most in need. They will be key to reducing congestion and pollution and are safer than travelling by car.’

Guidance on the second round of Local Transport Plans (LTP2)

Transport authorities must monitor bus use in their area

They are required to report on annual bus patronage to the Department for Transport, coordinating information provided by the bus companies in their area. These aggregated statistics are published nationally and by region (see Transport Statistics Great Britain). The latest statistics show a slight reversal of decline in passenger numbers. However, it doesn’t look as though the Department for Transport will meet its PSA3 target to increase bus use by 12% compared to 2000 levels.

Guidance on the second round of Local Transport Plans (LTP2)

Transport authorities must try to make it easier for people to access jobs and services

They must develop ‘Accessibility Strategies’ in which they consider the links between social exclusion and transport in their area, and they must develop transport solutions to help improve the lives of people at risk of social exclusion.

Guidance on accessibility planning

Some good practice examples

Accessibility strategies enable local transport authorities to identify transport needs. Bus strategies and Local Transport Plans should explain how these needs will be met.

Transport authorities have a duty to consider the transport needs of the elderly and disabled

This relates to the provision of facilities, such as raised kerbs at bus stops, and better information, such as large-print timetables, that make travel easier. It also means considering the needs of he elderly and people with mobility difficulties when securing local bus services not provided commercially. The latter may relate to the type of vehicle used for a particular service or its route with regard to where people live. Often, needs are met through the provision of specialist services, such as Dial-A-Ride.

Transport authorities have the power to promote the bus network to meet people’s transport needs

Individual bus companies are responsible for promoting their own services and providing timetable and other information about them. However, local transport authorities have the ability to promote the use of public transport generally or to produce joint timetables and other information about local bus services in their area, especially where there is more than one operator along a route or in an area.

Local transport authorities provide information to Traveline that is used to help people find information about local bus services by telephone or through the Internet. This information also feeds into the Government’s Transport Direct web-based journey planner that brings together information about buses, trains, ferries and walking distances for whole multi-modal journeys.

Local highway authorities have a duty to manage their road network

In metropolitan areas district councils are the highways authorities so they and not PTEs have this duty.

The authorities need to enable traffic, including cyclists and pedestrians, to flow freely by making sure roads are used efficiently and with reduced congestion (Traffic Management Act 2004).

Local highway authorities report back to the Department for Transport on whether they have successfully undertaken their ‘Network Management Duties’ in Local Transport Plan delivery reports.