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

Ev 16 Transport Committee: Evidence
14 November 2007 Mrs Elaine Holt, Mr Martin Dean, Mr Les Warneford <strong>and</strong> Mr Ian Dobbs
sort of a regional administered scheme, that would
be better than the situation that there is at the
moment.
Q135 Mr Leech: I want to come back very briefly to
through ticketing. When I took a ticket from
Manchester to London I can get a train ticket with
the tube added on but I cannot have the Metrolink
before the train journey. Why is that? Given that
Stagecoach now runs Metrolink in Manchester, is it
going to change?
Mr Dobbs: That is back to me because Metrolink
comes under the rail division. I hope in the future it
will change. <strong>Ticketing</strong> in Manchester is entirely the
responsibility of the Greater Manchester Passenger
Transport Executive. It is not ours. We eVectively
run the managing contract on Metrolink in
Manchester. I am already talking to the PTE about
ways that we can improve integrated ticketing with
the light rail system in Manchester <strong>and</strong> the heavy rail
system, partly due to the fact that we are obviously
doing a lot of the development work on smartcards
in the UK at the moment because we will be the first
company that has them on the ground. I think we
have the expertise to help the likes of our colleagues
in Manchester towards that end. We will look for
similar developments in other parts of the country as
well. As was mentioned earlier by Mr Hollobone, we
have just taken over the East Midl<strong>and</strong>s rail franchise
in the last four days <strong>and</strong> we have the SheYeld Super
Tram at the north end of that so we have exactly the
same issue. We want to work with those PTEs. The
good thing is of course that the common platform is
going to be an ITSO platform. The PTEs are
developing smartcard systems that are compatible
with ours. It is the same platform <strong>and</strong> again the
travelcard add-on in London will be possible on our
smartcards, so if you get a smartcard ticket from
SheYeld <strong>and</strong> you want to travel to Victoria—
Q136 Chairman: Mr Dobbs, I should tell you that
this is not the view of Oyster. This Committee was
told very specifically that that would not be the case.
Witnesses: Mr Keith Halstead, Chief Executive, <strong>and</strong> Mr Ewan Jones, Director of Operations <strong>and</strong> Deputy
Chief Executive, Community Transport Association UK, gave evidence.
Q139 Chairman: Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Would you be kind enough to tell us who you are?
Mr Halstead: Keith Halstead, chief executive of the
Community Transport Association.
Mr Jones: My name is Ewan Jones. I am deputy
chief executive of the Community Transport
Association.
Q140 Chairman: Thank you both for coming. It is
extremely helpful for us to have you here. Mr
Halstead, did you want to say something before we
begin?
Mr Dobbs: With respect, the Department for
Transport is in the process of developing with
Transport for London what is called IOP, ITSO On
Prestige, which has the dual reading ability for ITSO
smartcards <strong>and</strong> Oyster to work on the same readers.
You will be able to buy a travelcard—
Chairman: I will take your word for it.
Q137 Mr Leech: We do not need smartcards to be
able to add on the Metrolink before a train journey
<strong>and</strong> we also do not need smartcards to add on a
Stagecoach bus journey into Manchester <strong>and</strong> then a
train journey. When are we likely to get some change
<strong>and</strong> some movement so that these can be added,
because clearly that has a significant impact on the
number of car journeys into railway stations <strong>and</strong>
persuading people to use public transport?
Mr Dobbs: I, like you, would like to see it happen
sooner rather than later. I am not responsible for
either ticketing or fares on Metrolink. That is a
GMPTE responsibility. I am working with them to
develop that but at the moment the technology on
the tickets that are sold there by the PTE is not
compatible with London for instance or the
mainl<strong>and</strong> rail system. It is a diVerent kind of ticket.
Mr Leech: If you buy a ticket in advance you could
add something that does not need to go through any
smartcard system or Oyster system or anything like
that; it just needs to be shown. Surely it just needs
someone to knock a few heads together between the
companies <strong>and</strong> the PTE to make sure that it
happens.
Q138 Chairman: Mr Dobbs, go out <strong>and</strong> knock a few
heads together.
Mr Dobbs: I am sure my customers would be
delighted to hear that they were going to have their
heads knocked together. We will certainly work with
the PTEs, all of them, to see what we can do in
practical terms. I think smartcards will beat all of the
rest of the systems in practical terms because we are
not far away.
Chairman: Gentlemen <strong>and</strong> Madam, you have quite
encouraged us. I have completely revised my view of
at least one major company <strong>and</strong> I am so delighted to
hear of these pacific, philanthropic <strong>and</strong> tolerant
companies that I did not know existed. Thank you
very much for coming this afternoon.
Mr Halstead: Yes. I wonder whether we could make
a brief opening statement. The CTA very much
welcomes the government’s concessionary fare
scheme as it provides increased opportunities for
elderly <strong>and</strong> disabled people to travel <strong>and</strong> will
obviously bring many people improved
independence, mobility <strong>and</strong> choice. However, when
you look across Engl<strong>and</strong>, a much more mixed
picture emerges <strong>and</strong> many older <strong>and</strong> disabled people
will not be able to make use of their concessionary
bus travel pass to which they are entitled because
either they cannot physically access a local bus
service or the may be geographically remote from