Transport User Voice – July 2019 – Developments in Scotland

01 July 2019

Young People and Transport

Since 2014, Transport Focus has spoken to over 30,000 bus passengers in Scotland through its Bus Passenger Survey. Latest results from this were published earlier this year, including results from 8000 passengers surveyed in Scotland between September and December 2018.

Following on from the publication of the Survey, Transport Focus held a ‘Young People and Transport’ event in Glasgow. The audience heard about a recent report Using the Bus: What Young People Think which sets out results of research that show young people are the biggest users of the bus – but don’t feel services are designed for them.

That report is the result of an in-depth look at the experiences and needs of young bus passengers. This includes clear recommendations for making services more attractive to encourage more young people to use the bus.

As the Transport Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament aims to encourage more people to use the bus, Transport Focus hopes the recommendations from this report will be actively considered.

National Rail Passenger Survey

Overall passenger satisfaction with ScotRail services rose to 85 per cent in the spring 2019 – up compared to spring 2018 (84 per cent) and up significantly with Autumn 2018 (79 per cent), in latest results for ScotRail from the National Rail Passenger Survey.

Satisfaction with punctuality/reliability rose to 76 per cent this spring, also up significantly compared to autumn 2018 (72 per cent) but still lower than the GB national figure of 77 per cent.

As noted, when Transport Focus published the Autumn 2018 results, it is important that ScotRail’s Train Service Performance Remedial Plan delivers improved punctuality and reliability that is sustained on a daily basis for the benefit of passengers.

Since its inception, and during the Spring 2019 NRPS period, a promising start to the remedial plan has seen targets set by the plan reached. Passenger satisfaction must improve further before they will meet targets within the ScotRail franchise.

Accessible Transport Framework

Transport Focus was one of the organisations that contributed to the Accessible Transport Framework first published in 2016. It’s good to note that this framework is now supported by a multi-modal Annual Delivery Plan which aims to deliver improvements to make transport in Scotland more accessible.

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