Call for user-friendly bus service

A green transport group yesterday called for "door-to-door bus services" as a way to cut car usage. A national public transport information service should also be set up, said Transport 2000. The group also said tickets should be valid on all public transport in every British city in a report entitled Blueprint for Quality Public Transport.

Transport 2000 said there were five major barriers to wider use of public transport. There was no public transport at all for the routes people wanted to travel .There was poor, or no, information about what services were available.

In addition, poor public transport was much slower than car travel; people with children, or disabilities, had trouble using public transport. There was also a general unwillingness to use it through ignorance or previous bad experiences, it was claimed.

The report called, along other things, for old rail lines to be re-opened, more bus lanes, cheaper fares especially for groups and families and "train taxi" tickets which buy a taxi ride from rail stations to the traveller's home.

"People have been talking about an integrated public transport system for years. Now we've shown that it's possible and what it means in practice," said Transport 2000's director, Stephen Joseph. He went on: "Quality public transport will attract people out of their cars, especially if it's combined with other measures."