Lyons, G. and Harman, R. (2002) The UK public transport indus- try ...

strategy for their area, covering public transport and roads, and including provision of
facilities. Provisions in the Transport Act 2000 place a duty on PTAs / LTAs to ensure
provision of appropriate bus information for users and potential users: either in partnership
with operators or by themselves with powers to recover costs from operators.
In western Europe local authorities generally have wide powers over a range of
activities and high levels of funding to support this. In France for example the various levels
in the hierarchy (regions, departments, municipalities) often work closely together over
transport plans and projects, their arrangements underpinned by formal contracts with the
national government over funding and by constitutional support (Harman, 1995).
The consumer interests of rail passengers in Great Britain are looked after by the
national Rail Passengers’ Council (RPC) and its eight constituent regional Rail Passengers’
Committees. In and around London, the London Transport Users Committee (LTUC)
represents the interests of rail users and other public transport travellers. These bodies meet
in public and their members represent a wide cross-section of rail users. The SRA is now
responsible for the RPC under the provisions of the Transport Act 2000. There is no
statutory public consumer representation for bus passengers, other than local authorities, the
LTUC in London and the (voluntary) National Federation of Bus Users.
3. HIGHWAY INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The emphasis in this paper is on developments in public transport information provision.
However, this should not detract from parallel activities that continue in the development of
highway information systems. Indeed, in looking to a future integration of highway and
public transport information systems, both fields of development are of importance.
Therefore, prior to addressing developments in public transport information systems two
major UK initiatives in highway information systems developments are summarised.
11