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

5 December 2007 Mr Manuel Cortes, Ms Fran Hill <strong>and</strong> Mr Richard Sherratt
Ms Hill: Well, everything. It would be for anything.
Mr Cortes: Could I just make a comment on where
we have seen a significant reduction in assaults? That
has been in the London area because significant
additional resources have been put into the BTP by
the Mayor <strong>and</strong> with them working closely with
London Underground <strong>and</strong> other operators within
the London area there has been a significant
reduction in assaults. So that shows how
cooperation actually does work.
Q357 Clive EVord: Good. To go back to your earlier
point, has there been a reduction overall in station
staV on Network South East?
Mr Cortes: I have not got a figure for the whole of
Network South East. I know that within the Greater
London area there has been, yes.
Q358 Chairman: Could you give us those figures?
Mr Cortes: I should be able to.
Chairman: I am not going to hold you to it.
Q359 Clive EVord: I use the train regularly every day
<strong>and</strong> I have noticed that at my station now the
barriers are open during the day. They are only
closed at peak time. They are never closed at any
other time. I put that down to a lack of staV on the
station. Is that your experience?
Mr Cortes: That would be our experience. Clearly if
you have got a barrier system, because people might
get on the network legitimately but not been able to
buy a fare, or whatever, you would need staV at
those barriers to be able to deal with people who
would have a ticket enquiry or not paid the correct
fare, et cetera. So you cannot close the barriers
unless you have got staV available.
Q360 Clive EVord: Are you aware of any
information about more evasion, people avoiding
paying the fares because there are less staV <strong>and</strong> more
barriers open?
Mr Cortes: The reason they brought barriers in in
the first instance was to maximise fares, so if you
have got them open it is defeating the purpose of
why they were there in the first place, so the answer
to that has to be yes.
Q361 Chairman: Have any of you noticed any
impact on your members since there has been the
introduction of a national concessionary bus travel
scheme?
Ms Hill: The eVect that it has had within the bus
companies is that obviously there is a lot more
people who are travelling with concessions, so it has
Transport Committee: Evidence Ev 41
created more work behind the scenes, if you like,
because constantly questions are being asked such as
how many more people are travelling, where are they
travelling, when are they travelling, because we have
to provide info to the local authorities to get
reimbursement for the travel. They are constantly
worrying about how much it is going to cost them
because in some instances the costs have shot up
quite a lot with the extra patronage. We cover
mainly clerical work, obviously, <strong>and</strong> I actually work
in that area myself, so we spend a lot more time both
from within the companies that we work for
analysing all these figures for the local authorities.
Q362 Chairman: But they are, of course, benefiting
from that?
Ms Hill: Yes.
Q363 Chairman: So it is not exactly pro bono, is it?
Ms Hill: No, definitely not. The other concern that
we have about our members is because it is costing
the authorities such a lot more money, <strong>and</strong>
obviously they are worrying about what it is going to
cost them next year, they are cutting back in other
areas such as looking to see what tendered services
<strong>and</strong> things like that they can have because they are
like everybody else, they have only got a finite
budget, so they are looking to perhaps try <strong>and</strong> cut
back in those areas. Obviously, if a lot of the
tendered services are taken oV then we have got the
worry about whether that is going to cause any job
losses to our members.
Q364 Chairman: Is there anything else you would
like to tell us that you think would be useful?
Mr Cortes: Just one point I would like to make. We
have just had the opening of the high speed line from
St Pancras <strong>and</strong> we are talking about ticket
integration <strong>and</strong> it just shows how ludicrous this
current situation is. Many people cannot go into
their local station <strong>and</strong> buy a through ticket all the
way to Paris. That just shows how ludicrous it is.
Q365 Chairman: You are expecting too much, Mr
Cortes!
Mr Cortes: Well, we are in the twenty-first century.
Maybe I am asking for a bit too much.
Chairman: Fifteen years ago I went in to Crewe <strong>and</strong>
bought tickets not all the way down through Italy
but right the way down to Sicily with no trouble at
all. I had seats booked <strong>and</strong> it was all tremendously
eYcient. That is totally impossible now. If I want to
go to Chester it is another city, which may indeed be
true. Lady <strong>and</strong> gentlemen, you have been very
helpful. Thank you very much indeed.