Memorandum submitted by the Confederation
of Passenger Transport UK (CPT UK) (ST 26)
CPT is the trade organisation representing the
bus, coach and light rail industries in the UK. Our members range
from large PLCs to single entrepreneurs and engage in the local
transport, dedicated contract, group hire, long distance regular
service and holiday markets. The transport of schoolchildren,
whether on public bus services or on dedicated contract vehicles,
forms an important part of many of our members' businesses.
We accept that the draft Bill addresses matters
which need addressing. We believe that there is considerable scope
for buses and coaches to play a larger role in reducing congestion
caused by cars on the "school run".
We fully support the moves to ensure safety
and high quality in the buses and coaches used to take children
to and from school.
We are concerned that the "no new public
money" approach could easily lead to a situation where existing
(free) travellers are priced off buses and coaches. The fact that
a charge is affordable does not mean that it is not avoidable,
especially if a parental car is already making a journey in broadly
the same direction. We are sceptical that money raised from new
charges will be enough to improve the quality and quantity of
bus and coach services available to the "currently unentitled"
so as to achieve noticeable modal shift.
We believe that the scope of the Bill needlessly
restricts the opportunities to encourage sustainable travel to
school by 17-19 year olds, given that individuals in this age
group have the extra option of driving a car to school.
We are concerned that the proposed evaluation
framework is unduly narrow in that it fails to recognise the inter-relationship
between schools transport and public transport networks as a whole.
We can cite many examples of towns where the revenue derived by
bus operators from carrying "entitled" school children
is crucial to the commercial viability of the entire bus network.
A high quality, dedicated school network in such a town might
improve the modal split for school journeys, but could lead to
the withdrawal of multi-purpose services, with undesirable social
and congestion consequences.
30 April 2004
| 
