Passenger transport executives would take control of local highways, trunk roads and rail services to surrounding counties, under a big shake-up of transport governance.
The Government’s Draft Local Transport Bill paves the way for an overhaul of transport delivery in England’s six large northern conurbations and beyond, to provide ‘strong leadership’ and better co-ordinated road and transport powers. The Department for Transport claims ‘a broad consensus’ that current arrangements are not working, but does not want ‘to impose a “one size fits all” approach’.
The draft legislation would require conurbations to review the effectiveness of their governance arrangements and propose changes, which could include extending their remit over a broader geographic area, and potentially, over heavy rail and trunk roads.
The door is also left open to allowing PTEs to keep fare revenue, as recommended by a Local Government Association report, urging the extension of this benefit which Transport for London enjoys (Surveyor, 1 June 2006).
A Passenger Transport Executive spokesman said improved governance was needed to ensure that bus priority and infrastructure improvements accompanied better services under bus franchises. ‘We need greater cohesion between highways and public transport,’ he said. But he stressed what was needed in the uninterrupted built-up area of Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire, with more distinct centres, ‘is likely to be different’.
There was evidence that councils outside conurbations saw the benefits of extending PTEs, he claimed, with North Yorkshire County and districts such as Harrogate sitting on the ‘Leeds city region’ partnership, alongside the West Yorkshire conurbation authorities.
Cllr David Sparks, chair of the LGA’s transport board, pointedly said that partnerships between neighbouring authorities ‘should be encouraged where it means better services for local people’. PTEG also welcomed the Government’s aim to remove barriers to voluntary or statutory bus partnerships, and their extension to include fares and frequencies. The DfT believes partnerships with one or more operator will be a good option for ‘medium-sized cities’. The Bill’s provisions are designed to facilitate partnerships with a new ‘competition test’ that agreements on buses should find easier to pass. But quality bus contracts – which ministers hope to make easier to set up – are still likely to take at least four years to establish under the plans, the PTEs fear. This could be a big hurdle to achieving the 7% annual increases in patronage civil servants estimate that deals in England’s six biggest conurbations would secure. But, overall, Cllr David Wood, chair of PTEG, said the Bill ‘should give us the powers we need to improve our transport networks’, including greater control over rail franchises.
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