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Local Transport Bill [HL]

I will speak to my amendment, grouped with the other two, while the noble Lord, Lord Low of Dalston, is briefed as to what has been going on. On Amendment No. 69ZA, as I have said before, it would be really good to have a Public Transport Users Committee to cover bus and rail public transport. It is long overdue, and I commend the Government for saying that they will introduce it. I have had discussions with Passenger Focus, and it certainly welcomes this which is also encouraging. In proposed new subsection (8), the first of three in this amendment, is it important to have some regional representation for buses, and probably for rail. Clearly, the Rail Passenger Council’s structure was not ideal. There were far too many regions, and the selection and operation of some members was probably not as good as it could have been. So Passenger Focus is much better, but it would be wrong to expect people with complaints about a bus in Manchester or Leeds to address all their complaints to London, where the head office will inevitably be. Particularly for buses, it is important to have a regional structure. Proposed subsection (9) may be stating the obvious, but if one does not know how to contact the users’ committee it is no good at all. After many years, there is now, on all railways, the address of Passenger Focus, so that people can get in touch by phone, by e-mail or in writing. That is very important. Proposed subsection (10) probes whether the Department for Transport will pay for any extra resources that are needed for the Public Transport Users Committee and the effective transport commissioners if they are to fulfil that role.