The
People's Passenger Transport Executive - an idea and workshop floated at Saturday's "Reimagine Travel in the West of England!" at Spark's Bristol. I went along - always good to listen to the wider grass roots - or the part of the grass roots sufficiently motivated to come along to such an event. And a good opportunity to catch up with a number of friends too. Lunch from
https://www.coexistcommunitykitchen.org - was exceptional for an event lunch - a score of 5/5 which I do not give easily.
Passenger Transport Authorities created 1968, now Passenger Transport Executives, are local government bodies which are responsible for public transport within large urban areas. They are accountable to combined authorities, which were created between 2011 and 2016 and took the role of integrated transport authorities (
ITAs▸ ). There isn't one for the Bristol Area, with
WECA» (the West of England Combined Autority) doing the job directly.
A
People's Passenger Transport Executive in concept is different to the other
PTEs▸ . It starts as being named after the people it serves and not after the area it serves - and really the people / customers are kings. Without people to use the transport that's provided there's no point in providing it. The actual area served? Well - the day was about WECA although I met up with people from Somerset and Gloucestershire there, and I'm from Wiltshire.
In my view the best approsch is to take a view of the natural economy / travel to work area - but it has naturally woolly edges. Also
in my view there are many dedicated experts around and they should be partnered with and not driven out in the interest of the people getting what they want. There's a law of unintended consequences here, and balances to be struck.
After lunch, we formed "directorates" for the PPTE, with each to come up with our own five key objectives. It was - educational - to see significant groups at the individual train, tram and bus tables but just me and one other person - a lady from that wider area - at "passenger experience". As this is all about passengers, I felt that too many people are concerned at the detail without looking at the broad picture of "why are we doing public transport in the first place?"
What are your key five priorities? [For public transport / passenger experience]1. Where, when you need it, relaible and reasonable timekeeping
2. Information - Marketing, ahead of travel, and as you travel on the day
3. Sensible known pricing and straighforward ticket sales for all
4. Networked and connecting across all modes
5. Feel safe, actually safe, welcoming and accessible for all
What do you want the other directorates to know?1. See above - this is what your customers want
2. There is plenty of custom available if you provide this
3. The financial model should be based on the economy of the area not on service budgets / costs
Which other directorates do you expect to work with?1. All of them - the customer is king and we are doing this for the customer
