§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the contract to run the traveline website was awarded; to whom it was originally awarded; who holds this contract; what the length and cost of the contracts(a) were at the time of award and (b) are now; what the terms of reference and expected outputs of the contract were; what assessment has been made of the delivery of the contract; what changes have been made to the original contract; and what further changes are planned. [86091]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe traveline website is owned by the traveline partners not by the Department for Transport. We are not therefore in a position to comment on the contracts entered into by those bodies.
In 2001 the traveline parties, under the leadership of Buckinghamshire County Council submitted a bid to the then Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions for 58K Supplementary Credit Approval (SCA) to develop the original traveline portal site.
This was supplemented by a grant of 25K during 2002 to extend the traveline portal functionality. This work will be completed in the first quarter of 2003.
The traveline parties have agreed with the owners of a site offering a comprehensive index of public transport information (pti.org.uk) to merge websites and functionality, given the complementary nature of these sites. As part of the merger, the controlling company, pt/ Website Ltd., will include representatives from transport operators and local authorities.
It will be a matter for pt/Website Ltd. and the various traveline partners nationally to consider how and when to assess the effectiveness of their web services.