APPENDIX 27
Memorandum submitted by the Disabled Persons
Transport Advisory Committee
INTRODUCTION
1. The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory
Committee (DPTAC) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the House
of Commons Transport Committee investigation Bus Services Across
the UK.
2. DPTAC was set up under the Transport
Act 1985 to advise the Government on disabled people's transport
needs. We aim to ensure that disabled people can go where everyone
else goes, easily and without extra cost. We would like to see
this happen by 2020.
3. The absence of accessible, affordable
and available transport means that disabled people are less able
to secure and retain employment, obtain medical treatment, enjoy
a full social and recreational life, or travel with whom they
want, where they want and when they want. Compared to others,
disabled travellers are likely to plan further ahead, use more
effort, pay more to travel, spend more time, experience embarrassment
and stigmatisation, and find themselves more tired at the end
of a journey. This will crucially affect their confidence and
preparedness to travel in future.
4. DPTAC uses four overarching principles
as the basis for its advice to Government, other organisations
and disabled people. These are that:
— Accessibility for disabled people
is a condition of any investment.
— Accessibility for disabled people
must be a mainstream activity.
— Users should be involved in determining
accessibility.
— Providers are responsible for achieving
accessibility for disabled people.
5. These principles are the basis of DPTAC's
response to consultations.
SPECIFIC RESPONSE
TO THE
CONSULTATION
6. DPTAC welcomed the introduction of free
travel from April 2006 on local scheduled bus services for disabled
and older people in England.
7. DPTAC also welcomes the Chancellor's
statement in this year's budget that from April 2008 disabled
and older people will be able to travel free on scheduled buses
throughout England.
AVAILABILITY OF
BUSES
8. As from 2000 all new buses used on scheduled
services have had to conform to Public Service Vehicles Accessibility
Regulations (PSVAR). Compliant vehicle are wheelchair accessible
and have colour contrast throughout their interior.
9. However, because PSVAR compliant buses
are not required to be fitted with audio/visual announcements
(AV) they continue to exclude many people with visual or hearing
impairments. We do not therefore consider them to be fully accessible.
10. Although all of Transport for London's
bus fleet conforms to Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations
(PSVAR) only around 23% of the English bus fleet outside London
does so.
11. Although figures are hard to come by,
roll out of PSVAR compliant vehicles would appear to be faster
in areas run by members of the Passenger Transport Executive Group
(PTEG) such as the West Midlands and Merseytravel than by transport
authorities generally.
12. Away from major cities and towns, availability
of accessible buses is very limited, particularly so in rural
areas. At best, services tend to run hourly and finish around
six o'clock in the evening. It is very rare for buses in rural
areas to conform to PSVAR.
13. Your predecessor Committee noted in
your Third Report of Session 2004-05 Disabled People's Access
to Transport: A year's worth of improvements? "we cannot
assess with any certainty whether the bus industry will meet the
statutory deadline of 2017 to phase out buses which do not comply
with the accessibility regulations."
THE BENEFIT
OF HAVING
A CONCESSIONARY
PASS
14. On the face of it the value of the concessionary
pass should be the same for a disabled person living in Cumbria
as it should for someone living in London. However, this is not
the case in reality.
15. The real value of the concession depends
on the ability of the recipient to be able to use it. In Cumbria,
for instance, opportunities for even the more "mobile"
disabled and older person to take advantage of their concession
will be limited to a handful of routes, with infrequent services.
16. In contrast, Londoners are able to take
advantage of a fully PSVAR compliant fleet running on hundreds
of routes. In addition, the concession is also accepted on all
other public transport modes starting and ending within Greater
London, although it should be noted that the tube network remains
inaccessible to significant numbers of disabled people.
17. This Government has developed policies
to tackle social exclusion and help disabled people secure employment.
We find it puzzling therefore that by statute the concession is
not available before 9.30 am or after 11.00 pm.
18. Disabled people in work earn on average
less than the national average. The morning time restriction is
a needless obstacle to disabled people finding, resuming or maintaining
employment. In addition, by preventing older and disabled people
from going by bus to pre-booked hospital and other medical appointments
before 9.30 am the NHS has to fund alternative transport.
19. Department for Transport officials advised
DPTAC the 9.30 am restriction was in place because of congestion
implications and cost. However, they were unable to provide us
with figures for the estimated cost, or increased patronage, from
allowing disabled people to travel free at all times.
20. The Department for Transport have not
been able to explain why the 11.00 pm "watershed" is
in place.
21. London has the highest levels of bus
patronage in the country and some of the most congested roads.
Despite this, Transport for London provides disabled people with
free travel on all public transport, except trains, at any time.
Older people can travel for free from 9.00 am. On trains the concession
is valid from 9.30 am.
22. In Wales, the Welsh Assembly has provided
free bus travel to disabled and older people from April 2002.
This is a national scheme and has no time restrictions.
23. From April of this year, the Scottish
Office has introduced a free national concession scheme and like
Wales there are no time restrictions.
24. We have attached to this Memorandum
our new DPTAC discussion paper: Recommendations for extending
concessionary fares across local authority boundaries and widened
to include community transport services. (Annex A)
QUALITY CONTRACTS
25. DPTAC would like to express its support
for Quality Contracts. They contribute to improved dialogue between
Local Authorities and operators, help raise standards and improve
access for disabled people.
WHAT NEXT?
26. We have demonstrated that the real benefit
of having a concession depends on where you live. As a "rule
of thumb" the bigger the city the more disabled people will
be able to take advantage of the concession.
27. There are various policies the Department
for Transport could pursue to improve equality of access to concession
holders.
28. As a first step, the Department for
Transport should immediately abolish the morning and night-time
time restrictions.
29. To improve accessibility for blind/partially
sighted, deaf and passengers with learning difficulties, the Department
for Transport must regulate for on board audio/visual announcements.
30. Although the Department has set a deadline
of 2016-17 for all buses to be PSVAR compliant, local authorities
and bus operators need to be encouraged to accelerate purchasing
new vehicles.
31. The Department should introduce a key
performance indicator measuring local authorities' provision of
accessible bus stops. After all, a bus is only truly accessible
when the bus stop is also accessible.
32. However, if the Department for Transport
really wants to improve older and disabled people's mobility they
will need to be far more imaginative than at present.
33. In rural areas and towns without a comprehensive
PSVR compliant bus network the Department will need to fund alternative
transport.
34. In rural areas, organisations such as
community transport operators would be ideally placed to run an
inclusive "bus" service. However, to provide regular
services at nil cost to the user would be expensive. In addition
to increased funding the Department will also need to adopt a
long term financing strategy to replace yearly grants. This will
provide community transport operators with secure funding enabling
them to make long term planning and investment decisions.
35. To help improve access to services and
encourage passenger growth, the Department should consider running
Community Transport services in partnership with conventional
bus services/operators.
36. In addition to community transport the
Department should consider other methods of transport. In urban
areas Dial-a-Ride and Taxicard are two schemes that could become
part of the "concessionary fares family".
37. In North Wales, where local train services
tend to play the same role as bus services elsewhere, the Welsh
Assembly is considering extending concessionary fares to local
trains. We recommend the Department for Transport consider extending
concessionary fares to all local train services in England.
CONCLUSION
38. Overall, the Department is making some
progress towards delivering an accessible bus service for disabled
people.
39. However, as we have illustrated in this
response, for disabled people accessible transport is a post code
lottery. If the Government is committed to social inclusion it
needs to adopt the sort of practical solutions outlined here above.
40. The press notice advertising the Committee's
inquiry advised that you are considering a nationwide version
of London's freedom pass. DPTAC believes that there is a compelling
need for one.
24 May 2006
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