Y Pwyllgor Datblygu Economaidd a Thrafnidiaeth
Mesur Trafnidiaeth (Cymru) drafft - Craffu ar y cyd r Pwyllgor Materion Cymreig
TB34
Comments On The Draft Transport (Wales) Bill By Robert Saxby BSc, C.Eng., M.I.C.E., F.C.I.L.T.
The following are my own comments on the draft bill and not necessarily those of my employer, Conwy County Borough Council. I will confine my comments to the proposed powers to set up Joint Transport Authorities (JTAs) as this is the most controversial part of the bill and is likely to have the greatest impact on service delivery. Until 1996 the two counties in North Wales carried out public transport co-ordination. Arguments were put forward at the time for retaining this function at the former county level as smaller authorities would have much smaller public transport units (PTUs) and would be less efficient and possibly too parochial, particularly in terms of travel patterns which cross boundaries. The former Gwent authorities in the south set up a joint PTU but in the north each unitary authority decided to have its own PTU. We now work together on regional matters through the TAITH consortium. This does enable regional issues to be addressed but, although there are now more professional public transport officers in North Wales than there were in 1996, we are all busy running our own PTUs and have little time to work on regional issues. This results in work such as preparing the Regional Public Transport Strategy and the TAITH Transport Grant Bid being carried out by consultants. Individual authorities have occasionally also had to use consultants where they have not had staff with the appropriate expertise. It also means that decision taking on regional matters involves officers and members from six authorities rather than two thus much more staff time is taken up with meetings. Since 1996 the dilution of transport skills means that some authorities are now more efficient at certain aspects than others due to the varied talents of individual staff. This is most noticeable in the field of public transport information where the approach taken varies widely between authorities. There were some early examples of bus routes terminating at local authority boundaries and whilst such silly things have now been sorted out there is in theory nothing to stop them occurring again. By working through TAITH we have been able to speak with one voice on rail issues, agree regional policy documents and bid for transport grant. This has so far been effective but we have not yet attempted to adopt a regional approach to matters such as public transport information or bus infrastructure design. A JTA for the TAITH area could resolve all of the above problems but would itself pose a number of new problems that need to be addressed as follows:-- Decisions too remote - this was not widely perceived as a problem with the two counties regarding public transport. It could be if the whole TAITH area were administered from one site but this could be overcome by having staff based on two sites (east & west) under common management.
- Loss of link with Education Transport - all authorities procure home - school bus transport through the PTU as this has been found to be most cost effective. When the Gwynedd PTU took over school bus procurement from the Education department in 1986 there was a saving of some £800k, due in part to transport professionals being able to design a more efficient network and make the maximum use of service buses to convey school pupils. When I moved to Conwy in 1999 I was able to reduce the peak vehicle requirement by 7 buses by redesigning the network. In England the PTEs are the equivalent of a JTA . There is no legal obligation on education authorities to procure school transport via the PTE but many do. In large urban areas this is less of an issue as generally there are many commercial service buses operating and school pupils are a relatively small proportion of business. In rural areas however the carriage of school pupils on service buses is fundamental to the provision of efficient bus services. It is vital therefore to ensure that the JTA procures school buses and the legislation needs to reflect this. A clause requiring education authorities to work in partnership with the PTU on the provision of home - school transport is therefore needed.
- Loss of link with Traffic Management - where the PTU is based in a Highways Department there is usually good liaison with between public transport and traffic management staff. This enables day to day problems to be dealt with as well as infrastructure changes. Where the PTU is not in a Highways Department such links are not always as strong and there is a danger that a JTA would be even more out of the loop on traffic management. The Local Transport Plan process should ensure that traffic measures are generally appropriate in overall policy terms but we would need to ensure close day to day working. This is another area which might be helped by including a 'duty’ to work in partnership in the legislation.
- Finance - it is not obvious from the legislation exactly how a JTA would be financed. In theory there is a notional amount of the SSA for each authority included for public transport, concessionary fares etc. These amounts are not widely known and are not necessarily reflected in the authorities budget. When ATCO made the case to DfT for additional revenue funding to avoid bus service cuts following increased tender prices we were told that extra money had been put into the SSA in England for this. Few English authorities however saw any increase in their budgets and some had to make cuts. Perhaps if the notional amounts in the SSA relating to public transport were allocated direct to the JTA by WAG , together with existing grants (LTSG, Transport Grant, sec 156 etc) such problems could be avoided and AMs would know that money intended for transport is indeed spent on transport.
- Lack of liaison with NHS & Social Services Transport - this is an existing problem and few authorities have got anywhere with it. This is another area where a 'duty’ on Social Services/NHS/JTAs to work in partnership might be of benefit to get things moving.
