Hansard

I thank the committee for giving CPT the opportunity to put the industry perspective. On seeing the names of today's other witnesses, I made the assumption that COSLA and SPT would present more than adequately both the historic and current situations regarding concessionary travel. I do not, therefore, intend to bore the committee by revisiting the Transport Act 1985.Concessionary fare schemes are not a contentious issue between local government and the bus operators, so long as the concession schemes are seen to be fair and simple.From the bus operators' perspective, these are the essential points to be borne in mind. First, concessionary fare schemes are not a subsidy to bus operators. They are instruments of social policy offering subsidised bus travel to elements of society for whom it is deemed appropriate. If concessionary fare schemes were withdrawn, the operators would be no worse off. Put simply, instead of 100 people paying 30p, there would be 30 people paying 100p. Turnover would go down—but so would costs.Secondly, operators need to be treated fairly by concessionary travel schemes. They need to be able to benefit by providing good services. For example, the largest concessionary travel schemes relate to senior citizens, who benefit from low-floor, easy-access buses. However, if the local authority says that there is no more money available to reimburse the operator, there is no incentive for the latter to make the additional investment. The operator should be allowed to make some level of legitimate profit.Thirdly, reimbursement is normally calculated by using a generation factor. As previous speakers have said, that is based on the principle that passengers who are eligible for concessionary travel passes or subsidised travel make more journeys than they would have made if they did not have the concession passes and were required to pay the full cost of each journey. If a local authority offered a half-fare travel scheme, the operator would not be reimbursed for the full half of the revenue forgone—one-third reimbursement might be decided on. There is no standard method of calculating revenue forgone. Each scheme makes its own case.The calculations might be based on average fare by route, on the revenue forgone by the journey or on some survey. The concept of extra journeys being generated is accepted by the operators, so long as the arithmetic is done in such a way that the operators are seen to be no worse off by participating in a concessionary travel scheme than they would have been had the full fare been paid.About 25 concessionary travel schemes are operating in Scotland and most of them differ in their application and content. Some offer free fare, others half fare, and others a set fare. Some operators are involved in only one local authority area scheme, but Scottish Citylink Coaches, a cross-boundary service provider, is involved in nine concessionary travel schemes.Concessionary travel schemes are legal arrangements and can be rigid and unvariable. When the local authority decides that it wants to introduce a variation to the scheme, the variation can be to the detriment of the participating operators. Operators would welcome the introduction of a single national scheme for many reasons. It would be much simpler to ensure that drivers recognise passes, so a passenger's right to travel would not be queried—at present, drivers have to deal with a variety of passes. It would greatly simplify the administration involved in claiming payments. However, operators would want such a scheme to be controlled centrally to ensure the correct payment structure and they would not want repayment calculations to be based on surveys, which, experience has shown, can be an inaccurate method of establishing the average for a set period of time. Ticket machine technology is sophisticated enough to provide accurate data, as long as the drivers are adequately trained.The operators recognise the Government's concern about social inclusion issues. Similar concerns led to the introduction of the first concessionary travel schemes. The industry is doing what it can to make travelling by bus easier. It is investing heavily in easy-access vehicles, which will ensure that all but the most severely disabled will be able to travel by bus. Bus and coach operators are also committed to driver training. Attainment standards for Scottish vocational qualifications have been set. A significant proportion of the SVQ standards relates to customer care. In addition, CPT and the operators are in discussion with groups such as ENABLE, which represents adults with learning disabilities, and the Scottish accessible transport alliance to try to incorporate their requests into the formal training programme.CPT and the operators are committed to playing their part in improving integrated information. They aim to get the national golden number call centres up and running by 31 December 2000.CPT is one of the lead bodies of project PTI 2000 and since CPT is the trade association for bus, coach and light rail, the funding that it has already laid out for the project has come from the operators, through their subscriptions.The bus and coach industry is not averse to any concessionary travel scheme being broadened out to other groups in society, provided that the industry is not worse off by participating. Concessionary travel schemes are not a subsidy to bus operators. We can see an environmental benefit to broadening concessionary travel schemes in that a proportion of highly polluting older cars would be taken off the road.The press release of 29 September 1999 about John Prescott's pledge for half-price travel for pensioners stated that the Government would give an extra £25 million to local authorities to fund the measure and that local authorities would be able to offer more generous schemes if they wanted to. Senior citizens who enjoy free travel, such as those in Fife, would cause an outcry if half-price travel were introduced. To the operators, it is a local authority budget decision relating to social policy.The most recent example of development in the field is the national free concessionary travel for the blind scheme, which will commence on 1 December this year. Bus operators are supporting the COSLA proposals, but they are concerned that as local authority budgets are already allocated for the current year, councils will not be required to pay any more than they do at present and any shortfall will be picked up by the operators as a gesture of good will. On the basis that the scheme is not a precedent and that it is being extended only because of the relatively small numbers involved, the operators are having to agree.In summary, the concept of concessionary travel schemes is acceptable to the operators, provided that the industry would not be worse off by participating or that it would have to raise fares to fund such schemes. We would find it unacceptable if habitual bus users—a large proportion of whom come from the lower income groups—were required to subsidise travel for others.