pteg has welcomed today’s Select Committee report, and in particular the report’s backing for a major trial of ‘Total Transport’ which would pool currently separate funding flows and vehicle fleets across public transport, healthcare, education and social services. This was a key recommendation of pteg’s 2011 report ‘Total transport – working together across sectors to achieve better outcomes’ and part of the evidence that pteg gave to the committee.

pteg also welcomed the adoption by the Committee of pteg’s definition of what comprises an isolated community in transport terms; and the Committee’s recommendation that pteg’s ‘available-accessible-affordable-acceptable model’ should be used by the DfT ‘as a practical starting point’.

pteg Support Unit Director, Jonathan Bray, said:

‘With revenue funding for local transport in decline there are major challenges for the provision of transport to isolated communities be they urban, rural or suburban. The Committee is right that isolated communities need some form of public transport if wider government goals for health, employment, growth and education are to be met, and that therefore the DfT needs to provide leadership, and draw on funding from those Departments. The Committee is right too in saying that the voluntary sector cannot fill all the gaps but that there is potential for more pooling of funding streams and vehicle fleets across sectors – and that a major trial of this ‘total transport’ approach is needed to test how this might work in practice.  Overall we are very pleased that the Committee has found our evidence helpful in drawing up their report on passenger transport in isolated communities. That evidence drew upon the cutting edge work we have done over the last ten years on how public transport policy and practice can best contribute to wider social, economic and environmental goals.’

For more contact Jonathan Bray on 0113 251 7445 / 0781 804 1485