With the British Regional Transport Association popping up with a Westbury meeting in a couple of weeks time, I have been thinking about community public transport groups with national or super-regional reach (i.e. those which extend geographically beyond a single daily travel area). I came up with:
* Community Rail Network
* Campaign for Better Transport
* TravelWatch SouthWest
* Railfuture
* Bus Users
* British Regional Transport Association
To my mind, national and sub-national transport advocate groups have a tough time motivating the community as people with a keen interest tend to concentrate on the service that serves their own area. The above have somewhat different metrics and aims - the Community Rail network is government funded and I have been reminded that it's not about campaigning for significant more services, whereas BRTA appears to major on (re)openings and is very much about campaigning. Both frustrate at times with those extremes. Perhaps in the middle sits Railfuture, but it's been adamantly rail and talks about a bigger and better railway; I'm happy with "better" but I am concerned at "bigger" as it's a consequence of what's needed and should not be an objective in its own right.
Many of these national and super-regional ones benefit from affiliated groups of users, supporters, promoters, campaigners.
* RailFuture -
https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Rail-User-Groups* Community Rail Network -
https://communityrail.org.uk/about-us/map-of-members/* TravelWatch SouthWest - does not publish a members list, but all members are invited to meet and do so; The
TWSW» board and secretariat welcomes new members and provides introductions as appropriate, and is more than happy for members to let it be known they are members
* BRTA - Seems to concentrate on individual rather than group memberships, but I have had so little engagement there that I might be wrong.
* Campaign for Better Transport - talks of partners and sponsors, though at a quick glance I can't spot the list / directory on their web site; it was there is the past and may still be - but I am away with limited connectivity this weekend.
* Bus Users -
https://bususers.org/local-groups/As I have been writing this, my mind has been thinking
"Is our Coffee Shop a super-regional transport advocate group?". Perhaps it is in some ways, but not in others. It covers a super-region for people with a public transport (mostly rail) interest and helps inform and exchange information. However the Coffee Shop itself is not - except in very very rare circumstances - an entity with its own views. In many ways it's like the press (old fashioned term!) bringing you the news and not making or attempting to make the news.
Have I missed any national or super-regional organisations I should have included?
Click on the map to explore geographics
