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

2 Integrated <strong>Ticketing</strong>
The extent of integrated ticketing today
6. None of our witnesses dissented from the view that integrated ticketing—the issuing of a
single ticket which will cover several legs of a journey, sometimes by different modes—was
a good thing. Many witnesses were also of the view that public transport ticketing in the
Engl<strong>and</strong> was still not sufficiently integrated, either between different modes (e.g. bus <strong>and</strong>
rail), across transport authority boundaries <strong>and</strong> sometimes even within a mode (e.g.
between different bus operators in the same city).
National rail
7. Comprehensive through-ticketing is provided between passenger train operators on the
National Rail network. Train operators are obliged, as a condition of their passenger
licences, to participate in through-ticketing arrangements covering most station-to-station
journeys 6 in the country. In addition, passengers can buy rail tickets that include other
modes (London Underground, <strong>and</strong> some light rail systems <strong>and</strong> ferries) <strong>and</strong> even some
major visitor attractions. 7 Some 413 million rail tickets were sold in 2006/07. 8 Of these,
around 100 million included some sort of add-on, such as a London <strong>Travel</strong>card or a
passenger transport executive 9 multi-modal ticket. It is also increasingly possible, under a
voluntary initiative by rail <strong>and</strong> bus operators, to buy a combined rail <strong>and</strong> bus ticket called
“PlusBus” 10 for over 200 towns <strong>and</strong> cities outside the metropolitan areas.
Local transport
8. In London there is a tradition of integrated ticketing on public transport, between the
rail networks <strong>and</strong> other services now provided by TfL. For example the London <strong>Travel</strong>card
allows the holder to use bus, tram, Underground, Dockl<strong>and</strong>s, Overground <strong>and</strong> National
Rail services. It can be bought in paper ticket format (with magnetic stripe), or for period
(season) use can be held on an Oyster card.
9. Outside London, there is no requirement for rail or bus operators to provide integrated
ticketing. Since bus deregulation <strong>and</strong> the consequent reduction in powers of the passenger
transport executives, this is left entirely to the market <strong>and</strong> to voluntary arrangements
between operators <strong>and</strong> local transport authorities. In the metropolitan areas <strong>and</strong> larger
cities, a range of multi-modal <strong>and</strong> multi-operator tickets are available for local buses, trains,
trams <strong>and</strong> metro systems.
6 Train operators are also required to sell tickets that include London Underground but there is no statutory
requirement to sell tickets to other destinations, such as metro or bus stops.
7 Ev 132 (It is not generally possible, however, to buy a through rail ticket with light rail as the first stage of the
journey, e.g. Manchester Metro to London.)
8 Data provided by the Association of Train Operating Companies from the LENNON passenger revenue database.
Statistics on the extent of multi-modal journeys were not available from the National <strong>Travel</strong> Survey.
9 There are six passenger transport executives in Engl<strong>and</strong>: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne &
Wear, West Midl<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> West Yorkshire. Strathclyde PTE became a Regional Transport Partnership in 2006.
10 Ev 167
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