As the government launches its “Joined-up journeys” call for evidence exercise, the head of a national industry association representing transport technology has urged the coach and bus industry to keep the lines of external communication open.
The Transport Committee’s inquiry, which closes on 16 October, looks at “how government can mould transport services, networks and options around the journeys that people need and want to make in their daily lives”.
“Joined-up journeys” is linked to the government’s wider Integrated National Transport Strategy for England.
Max Sugarman, CEO of Intelligent Transport Systems UK (ITS UK), says coach and bus can lead the way to greater co–operation now, regardless of the findings of the inquiry.
He adds: “A lot of the power will be with the strategic authorities, but there’s lots the industry can do.
“Bringing people together in partnership to discuss how smart ticketing could be delivered in a multimodal way, standards, data quality – a lot of that comes from the industry side and doesn’t need government intervention…
“If I had one ask of the bus sector, I’d say it’s that we open that dialogue a bit more with other industries.
“I don’t think the future will be siloed thinking the way it has been over the past however many decades.”
More generally, he outlines what ITS UK would like from the government: “What we think integration is about is making journeys, particularly between modes, more seamless
and encouraging people to use them because they’re more reliable, more comfortable,
and people have the right information at the right time in the format that they need to
make the best decisions.
“Is there a panacea for this? Probably not. What we would like to see after the inquiry is some real thinking about how we value data, how we use it, how bus data interacts with rail and road, etc.
“Increasingly we’re seeing a huge amount of data points, from traffic management to Bus Open Data Service and other things, but now the question is, how do we bring that all together in a reliable and connected way that ultimately helps operators manage the network but also people sitting at home trying to get somewhere that involves the train, bus or walking; how do they get the information that they need to do that?”
