Recommendation 29

One digitally enabled service the Department has been supporting in 17 rural areas is demand-responsive transport, where smaller buses or taxis provide a link from rural areas into local towns. Passengers use an app to request journey times in advance.72 Demand responsive transport can provide a minimum level of transport connectivity for rural areas.73 The Department told us that each of the pilot demand-responsive schemes it had funded has since been extended at the local transport authority’s expense.74 Written evidence we received highlights several challenges with these schemes including difficulty in aggregating individual demands, low uptake (in part due to hesitations using an app-based system) and resulting costliness per user.75 We pressed the Department on how it is ensuring 66 Q 69 67 Transport Committee, Buses connecting communities, Third Report of Session 2024–25, HC 494, 13 August 2025, para 62 68 Q 69; C&AG’s report, Figure 13 69 As above 70 Qq 11, 33, 36; C&AG’s report, Figure 13 71 Confederation of Passenger Transport (LBS0026) 72 Q 74; Green Alliance (LBS0005) 73 Transport Committee, Buses connecting communities, Third Report of Session 2024–25, HC 494, 13 August 2025 74 Q 74 75 Green Alliance (LBS0005); John Geddes (LBS0005) 17 digital inclusion in its use of technology and the Department said it would ensure that there is a non-digital alternative, such as a phone line, where it funds services that are particularly reliant on digital.76 76 Q 72 18