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Public Transport

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. Indeed, we recommended that there should be additional staff involved and we were sorry that the Government did not accept some of our recommendations on that. We also called for a more independent appeals process for passengers who were accused of deliberate evasion. Again, we regretted that the Government did not feel able to support our cause. We hope that they will reconsider. I praise the work that Passenger Focus, the national passengers' group, has done to draw attention to the issue of penalty fares and how passengers are treated; the subject needs more attention from Government, and Passenger Focus has done very good work on it. The Committee's report welcomed the beginning of the new concessionary fare scheme. We looked to the future and suggested that concessionary schemes for young people could be considered. We decided to broaden the terms of reference of the inquiry that we are conducting on school transport to enable us to consider in more detail matters such as concessionary schemes for young people. I hope that we will receive appropriate evidence on the subject, because it is extremely important. All the issues that the Committee considered in its inquiry—concessionary fares, ticketing, revenue protection and integration—are important for passengers. They all contribute to the important task of making public transport accessible and attractive.