Rural bus services hould be replaced by subsidised shared taxis, says the government’s transport advisor. The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) said shared taxi services could transform rural transport and address a worrying trend in social exclusion. Rural bus provision has declined over the past 20 years as bus operators focus on more lucrative urban markets. The situation has been compounded by the move away from local service provision - the closure of post offices, shops and garages - resulting in poor access to many facilities for England’s 9.5 million rural people. Following considerably research, the commission is calling for a large scale, long-term pilot to assess the benefits of shared taxi schemes. Its findings were published as A New Approach to Rural Public Transport. Dr Lynn Sloman, who chairs the commission’s working group, said rural communities faced difficulties. “Dispersed, small populations are hard to serve using conventional buses, and in many rural areas bus services are infrequent, stop early in the day, and don’t run at all at weekends. Not surprisingly, people feel they can’t rely on public transport and instead use private cars. But the evidence shows that this leads to real hardship, with low-income households forced into car ownership when they cannot really afford it. “What we want to see is more flexible public transport services that can link people back into local facilities and core bus and rail networks.” Research by Mott MacDonald on behalf the commission assessed shared taxi schemes, known as “TaxiPlus” services, from across Europe and the UK. TaxiPlus schemes operating on a large scale are particularly successful in the Netherlands and Switzerland where sophisticated journey matching software is used to match people’s trips. Because TaxiPlus services only run when requested, they are more cost-effective than conventional bus services in remote areas and at off-peak times. This enables the provision of services seven days a week from early in the morning until late at night in places where a conventional bus service would be unviable.

Weblink

21 December 2008
© RSN