Ticketing and Concessionary Travel on Public Transport - United ...

Transport Committee: Evidence Ev 71
11. Are concessionary fares schemes suYciently integrated across diVerent modes of transport <strong>and</strong> diVerent
geographical areas?
45. No, but, for geographical areas, the legal minimum 2008 provision will considerably improve matters;
local arrangements for enhanced eligibility in dense urban areas (such as Greater Bristol) with multiple
CTAs 17 will benefit many travellers. For transport modes, there are clearly numerous areas where multimodal
eligibility would be sensible from the customer’s point of view.
46. The author of this submission is an independent ICT Strategy <strong>and</strong> Secure Technology consultant,
particularly for e-government <strong>and</strong> electronic transport ticketing methods. He is also working with Smartex
Ltd on the development of PSSG, a new trade association for businesses active in the same fields. Further
information may be found in a CV already submitted to the Committee.
February 2007
Memor<strong>and</strong>um from Tony Cornah <strong>and</strong> Polly Blacker (TPT 06)
To put us in context, we are Cycle Trainers, we rely on cycling as our main means of transport (we don’t
own a car) <strong>and</strong> are members of the SheYeld Cycle Campaigning group PedalPushers (so we have a feel for
what other regular cyclists in the area think too). We feel that provision for integrating cycling with other
means of transport is so poor as to be laughable.
To take train travel in Britain first:
1. We can’t book our bikes onto trains at the same time as we book our tickets online. This means that
we can’t really book online as we then risk not getting our bikes onto the trains we’ve booked. The facility
did exist in the past (can’t remember when it last did) but was removed by the operating companies.
2. Calling one of the train operators to try to book tickets <strong>and</strong> bikes at the same time often results in
various levels of frustration when the person you’re talking to either doesn’t underst<strong>and</strong> what you want or
seems not to have been trained in how to use the system to provide it.
3. Even when we go down to the station, <strong>and</strong> therefore suVer the inevitable enormously lengthy queues,
the ticket oYcer has to book tickets first <strong>and</strong> then use a separate system to confirm that cycle spaces are
available. This often results in several attempts before a suitable service can be identified (<strong>and</strong> increases the
length of the queue behind us!).
4. Many services restrict the number of bikes on any service to 2: how then can a family plan a trip?
5. Some train operators don’t provide a facility to book bikes onto their trains: to be fair they are often
the most flexible companies with the more helpful staV but it means that a long weekend away with bikes
is potentially subject to others’ dem<strong>and</strong>s rather than being bookable. With diVerent operators having
diVerent rules there is a pressing need for all staV to be trained to be as flexible as possible in all
circumstances.
6. To see a functioning cycle-friendly service try Deutsche Bahn’s website (in English too) at http://
reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e which covers all of Europe: how’s that for integration?
Next, consider trying to plan a trip by train <strong>and</strong> bike to Europe:
1. First reference is to the website above http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e which enables
onward travel after the Channel with relative easy <strong>and</strong> integration.
2. Now to Eurostar, who won’t guarantee that a bike booked onto one of their services will arrive until
up to 24 hours after you do: how do you plan a journey with that sort of restriction in place?
Continuing with coach services:
1. I think it is the case that no coach service will allow a conventional bike to be carried. When we
travelled fairly extensively in Central <strong>and</strong> Southern Europe for a year we were invariably able to book our
two bikes on to local <strong>and</strong> international services as luggage: we took responsibility for removing front wheels
where necessary <strong>and</strong> stowing the bikes in the hold but there was rarely any conflict with other dem<strong>and</strong>s on
the luggage space.
More locally, the SheYeld Supertram (but it applies to all other tram services in the UK as far as I know):
1. The service operators will not allow a conventional bike onto their trams under any circumstances.
2. It would make far more sense for the operators to allow bikes to be carried on the less busy services (<strong>and</strong>
at slacker times of the day) always with the proviso that pushchairs, buggies, wheelchairs, sudden influxes of
passengers, etc would have priority.
17 <strong>Concessionary</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Authorities.