Clause 68
Local Transport Bill [Lords]
6:45 pm
John Leech (Shadow Minister, Transport; Manchester, Withington, Liberal Democrat)
Amendment No. 232 would enable the functions of the new watchdog to be carried out on a regional basis. Although we would not favour the establishment of a large regional structure or a regional committee structure for the new watchdog, it should have a regional dimension.
Bus travel is local in character, and multiple operators are involved in its provision, including a host of very small local operators. It is far less easy for a single national organisation to have a good grasp of all the local variations than it is in the case of rail, where there are a limited number of players, and information on them and their performance is readily available and easily assimilated. In addition, key changes to services, for instance fares and frequencies, do not happen at the same time and with ample warning, as they do in rail. Again unlike rail, there is no guiding hand in Whitehall that influences the extent and quality of service provision, other than by indirect measures such as grant and subsidy regimes, vehicle regulations and so on.
Most of the key decision makers on the quality of service that bus passengers receive are regionally based, and thus the influence and credibility of a purely national watchdog—especially if it is London based—is arguable. Given that, there is a strong case for the bus watchdog to have a limited regional dimension, especially if it will eventually take on an appeals role for complaints, liaise effectively with the main actors on bus services in each region, and act as a credible voice for passengers in the deregulated regions, whenever major problems or issues arise.