Speeches by Mayer.

“Is the growth in passenger numbers made up of new people?”

“Do you have any idea who these new passengers are? Are they commuters?”

“Judith, you said earlier that your MCA was already subsidising most rural services. Are they net or gross contracts?”

“Stephen, were yours previously net or gross?”

“Did that give the authority some of the skills you needed when you moved forward into franchising?”

“Therefore, at the same time as producing a list of socially necessary services, should you also be producing a list of potentially necessary high-frequency services? Otherwise, we will be in a decline.”

“Is there a danger that having a list of socially necessary services will mean that the services that could be enhanced, which has happened through various pots such as BSIP, are no longer enhanced by transport authorities? We talked before about how there has been a decline in high-frequency services. Rather than using…”

“I also want to ask about the relationships between different types of councils as well. We have situations where one council is the transport authority and another council is the highways authority. This is going to become an increasingly bigger problem as more MCAs are rolled out. What role can enhanced partnerships p…”

“How have enhanced partnerships led to stronger collaboration between operators and local authorities? Perhaps you could give us a couple of specific examples. Alistair, you just gave us a good one.”

“How successful have enhanced partnerships been in improving bus services outside of major urban centres? We are not necessarily just talking about very rural areas; we are also talking about your average market town.”

“Our report highlights that the understanding of disabilities has changed since many of the relevant laws and regulations were put in place. This issue is about not only ramps for wheelchairs, for example, but conditions such as neurodiversity. Does my hon. Friend agree that making transport more accessible for those wi…”

“Are you aware of any particular problems around new-build estates? Clearly, there is a huge volume of different utilities needing to get into those places, both digging up existing roads and, obviously, non-adopted roads. I was wondering, first of all, if there were any different steps you took when there is a new-buil…”

“Do you want to carry on, Caroline?”

“Building on that, Greater Manchester, for example, in the first tranche of their Bee network, did not include DRT in that first phase. If you look at the business cases for other potential franchised areas, again there does not seem to be much mention of DRT. Why do you think that is happening, given that we appear to …”

“There is no mention of DRT, and very little mention of community transport, in the Government’s buses Bill. What do you think the Government’s view is of the role of these types of services?”

“We are coming to that.”

“As the Minister has just alluded to, the scheme is called SFI ’24. Might there be a clue in the title that makes this less surprising than people are saying, given that it is now 2025?”

“That is my point. Why are they only in places where traditional bus services aren’t viable? Are there not examples of DRT in places where traditional bus services are viable—where there are more passengers—and then presumably they would be less expensive to run?”

“Throughout this we have been talking about DRT. It sounds expensive. You have 95% of councils saying that DRT schemes are operating at a loss. Is that because of the way we are using DRT, or is it inherently expensive? A lot of this conversation has been about people who have, or would use, concessionary bus passes. We…”

“Absolutely. Do you think there is a need for a distinct regulatory framework for DRT? At the moment, basically, you are suggesting it is using either bus or taxi legislation because it has never been thought about on its own.”