Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 30
1st Report - Public transport in towns and cities
Published 9 Nov 2022
Built Environment Committee Public transport in towns and cities All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
In England, 55% of households in the lowest income quintiles have access to a car, compared with 86% of households in the top income quintiles. 54 On the relationship between income and transport modes, Professor Greg Marsden said: “The poorest 20% of households make three times as many trips on bus as the richest 20% of households, but on rail it is completely flipped”. 55 The Urban Transport Group warned that the “ongoing cost of living crisis may … affect demand for more ‘discretionary’ trips that would have involved bus travel”, adding that bus use is higher “in those regions targeted as most in need of ‘levelling up’—the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West”. 56
From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Public transport in towns and cities, 9 November 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 January 2023 (deadline 9 January 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the report and says it agrees with the Committee on a number of recommendations, while noting, partially agreeing with or disagreeing with others.
- It agrees that public transport investment should focus on user priorities, citing 'Improving Transport for the User' as one of DfT's five strategic priorities.
- On a multimodal zonal ticketing evaluation, it "notes" the recommendation and says it is for local areas and operators to consider the costs and benefits of specific integrated ticketing solutions.
- It "partially agrees" on bus rapid transit evaluation, saying a Government-led post-project evaluation "would likely be of limited comparable value" and may risk breaching mode neutrality.
- On bus funding after emergency support ends, it "partially agrees", says DfT is "actively considering" long-term support from April 2023, and "hope[s]" to set out more clarity by January 2023.