I took a call yesterday evening from a somewhat unhappy gentleman. Looking for the Transport User's Consultative Committee / Rail Passengers Committee for Western England. These were set up in 1962 and lasted in some form until 2005.
The Central Transport Consultative Committee took the place of a similar body that had been created under the Transport Act 1947 to represent users of the railway, and Area Transport Users Consultative Committees covered individual areas of the country.
The Committees were to make recommendations relating to the services provided by the four Boards, although their remit did not include the charges and fares. The Minister was not bound to follow any recommendations.
Some functionality may now be found in Transport focus (formally Passenger Focus)
Transport Focus is a watchdog for transport passengers and road users in the United Kingdom, based in London and Manchester. It was known as Passenger Focus until March 2015.[1] It is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Transport.
But is should be noted that it's characterised as a watchdog – with a slant towards handling failures to deliver to specification (pressing train operators to perform to contract) and to the generation of customer feedback information – where it does an excellent job. It does now include fares within its remit, but it lacks a role in forward planning and feeding customer suggestions into the system.
So – my questioner asked me -
"Where do I go to get my views heard – to have my inputs into the way the transport system I use will be in the future". I'm not sure that the Transport Users Consultative Committees were even
the place, nor how effective they were; we tend to see things through rosy tinted spectacles, but certainly these days there is no such supposedly central point.
1.
DfT» and other consultations (e.g. Rail Delivery Group on fares)
2. Individual Train Operator "meet the manager" and "customer forum"s
3. Your local Passenger Transport Authority (e.g.
WECA» , Wiltshire Council)
4. Your Member of Parliament
5. Transport Focus
6. Your local Community Rail Partnership or Rail User Group
7. Your Local Enterprise Partnership
All of which make for a pretty un-coordinated set of inputs, a setup so complex that it's hard to know who to go to about what, and a system under which – whoever you approach – you can simply be referred on to someone else. You're also likely to register in a count of inputs (especially with a consultation) which various bodies, to varying degrees, use to confirm that they are meeting their obligations to listen to the public.
But make no mistake, it is difficult and expensive for these organisations to field the wide and wild variety of inputs they receive, most that come from individuals being good ideas to the originator, but failing in the practicality stakes because...
a) Won't work operationally
b) Cost a lot of money that has to come from somewhere / will lessen operator profit
c) Great for the proposer, but mucks things up for someone else / created more problems
d) Falls foul of legal hurdles
e) Doesn't fit longer term strategies
f) There's no-one charged with / willing and able to take it forward, or they don't have the staff
g) It would set a precedent that "they" are fearful of
h) Would not be popular with [name a noisy group / population segment]
i) Too much of a risk, especially if the proposer doesn't stick around to support
j) Based on factors that are far too optimistic (people say they will use, but don't)
OK.
TravelWatch SouthWest. Not a replacement for the Consultative Committees, but it does provide a route through which (at the general meetings) all the various community groups can:
i) Meet up and make contacts
ii) Learn from each other and from transport industry folks and civil servants
iii) Set up their own follow ups – helping the best of cases to come together in a stronger combined case
TravelWatch also sets up occasional more specific meetings – covering whole-regional issues such as new rail franchises, or areas where new thinking / laws / regulation are on their way in. Examples are the Bus Services Bill / Act work of last year, and the
GWR▸ and
XC▸ franchise consultations this year. Upcoming, eyes are on various elements such as the way infrastructure expenditure which was routed via
EU» regional development will go next year. These extra elements give
iv) Combined inputs with some authority at critical times
v) Food for thought to groups and individuals who can support the common line that will work for everyone.
TravelWatch SouthWest is not a replacement for the TUCC – it lacks statutory powers and it's run very 'lightweight' by a team of volunteer directors with (in most cases) many years of experience, who are public transport advocates, and who are surprisingly capable of thinking and commenting outside the box, including being the 'critical friend'. Gaps remain in community input / provision – such as guidance and training for newcomers, and indeed my role at
TWSW» to some extent helps move into that gap – having come up through the community route – I have no government nor rail industry experience. We also have some excellent (but time limited) paid admin / organisational support - and with transport and executive experience that's put to good effect too.
Follow up question -
"If you have no powers, [why] do government / rail listen to you, and can you get the likes of Mark Hopwood along to talk?"It is in the common interest for public transport providers and their customer and potential customer base to co-operate on reaching mutual goals, and those goals line up / are mutual most of the time. Far better for the providers to have well thought out and mutually compatible inputs than ideas that don't work with each other or can't be implemented, and far better for the interested customer to know how to tune his inputs (and where to make them) such that they are effective and can head towards a positive result.
It's rarely easy to get the top industry / government people to talk to you as an individual or a small local group
001) there are so many small local groups it would be less that efficient for them (leaving little time to do anything else)
010) meeting small local groups may be cause concerns that the meetings are more about protest than progress
011) local groups tend to overall be less fully informed, and an alternative representative may be better than the top poncho
So – yes, TravelWatch is listened to. That's a very very long way from saying "we get our way" but we do recognise some of our inputs in the ongoing franchise consultation responses and
ITT▸ projects, for example, and other steers behind the scenes may be noted in things like timetable and fare responses. In the end, it's very hard to say that "X caused Y to happen" because it's all about teamwork, working together, partnership. And open partnership with ideas and comments flowing around.
Next TravelWatch general meeting - 6th October.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19659Comment / thoughts / corrections / additions to above most welcome
