Interesting report published last month on “Door toDoor Journeys” (a.k.a. “D2D” Journeys) by the Campaign for Better Transport. UK users of public transport know that the dream of integrated transport remains some way off. The report gives examples of good and bad practice, and the findings should be required reading for every politician, planner and environmentalist. As the Campaign for Better Transport says, if public transport is to be a real and attractive alternative to cars, it needs to offer the same kind of door-to-door service that cars do. “This is not impossible, as experience in some parts of the UK and in many other countries shows.” The report highlights four main elements that are needed to integrate transport. These are:
- Giving people good information before and during their journeys
- Making sure that the interchanges between different public transport services don't act as a barrier (and that walking and cycling access and facilities are good)
- Getting transport services to connect with each other
- Having tickets that allow services to join up in a simple and transparent way
My experience is that, compared with many other European countries, the UK doesn’t score well on many of these criteria: Brighton and Hove is good, but, for the UK, still exceptional. Here we have: real time information from the bus company; main interchanges which are broadly ok; some transport services which connect – and some that don’t; and some tickets that allow joined-up services, mainly between the bus company and the train operators: infuriatingly, there is no interoperability of tickets between our two main bus operators, Brighton and Hove Bus Company and Stagecoach. What is even worse is that there used to be – until Stagecoach (allegedly) pulled the plug on the deal. You can get the full version of the report (2.3 Mb) here.
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