Transport User Voice – September 2022 – Over to Scotland and Wales

25 August 2022

What’s been happening?

Scotland

As part of looking at the passenger experience during the strikes, we made a number of detailed recommendations to the rail industry. We are pleased that for the most part these have been acted upon to improve things for passengers.

On timetabling we asked each operator to seek to open more routes during future strikes – if it can be done reliably. We also wanted to them to find ways to minimise disruption on the morning after a strike. We were pleased that ScotRail acted upon this and operated services on 11 routes across the Central Belt, Fife and Borders on the days of strike action (18 and 20 August), providing double the number of services than during the previous strike.

Outside of the strikes, we’ve been busy in our role as a member of the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) Board. We have been part of a group helping prepare a draft strategy for public consultation which opened in early August. The RTS is a long-term strategy for the west of Scotland which sets the vision and direction for transport in the region for the next 10 to 15 years. It is important that the RTS is the right strategy for the people, businesses and organisations in the region. We would encourage people to take the opportunity to respond to the consultation and play a part in shaping the future of transport in the west of Scotland.

The draft strategy along with associated background reports, statutory assessments and an online consultation questionnaire can be found on the SPT website.

Wales

Improvements at Barry Island and Tenby

A few months ago, we visited Barry Island station to test Transport for Wales’ station audit checklist – that is checking the quality of things like cleanliness and facilities. While there, we noticed some things that needed attention and fed these back to Transport for Wales. This includes the fact that the help point which passengers can use to obtain assistance was missing from the wall. We know as an unstaffed station that help points are important for passengers. There was also graffiti around the platform. We went back recently to see if these had been addressed and are pleased to report the help point has been reinstalled and the graffiti has been removed.

We also took a trip to Tenby station a couple of weeks back alongside Transport for Wales staff. We wanted to see how well the station is being maintained during the busy summer months and to review signage. We noticed some unsightly graffiti around the station building and benches, as well as a lack of information about the impending dates of industrial action. We discussed with Transport for Wales the need for improved signage at the station. We’ll continue to push for improvements through our work with Transport for Wales.

National transport delivery plan consultation

The Welsh Government is consulting on its National Transport Delivery Plan for 2022 to 2027. This is the first five-year delivery plan for implementing the Wales Transport Strategy (read our response to the strategy here).

The delivery plan sets out how the strategy will be put into action with programmes and policies to reduce the need to travel, integrate journeys across different modes and encourage sustainable transport choices. The consultation details are here – please do submit comments so that a wide range of views can be considered.

 

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