Lord Berkeleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the £33.7 million cost of the Transport Direct website over its first two years represents value for money. [HL4115]
§ Lord Davies of OldhamThe £33.7 million represents the projected cost of the entire Transport Direct programme from its inception in April 2002 until the end of the current financial year. This includes the cost of developing the portal, comprising contracting costs, hardware, data and project costs. The remainder is being spent on future enhancements to the portal, including delivery through other media; development of the JourneyWeb protocol (that allows different systems to communicate with each other); development of internationally recognised technical standards; further development of real-time information; publicity and marketing. The programme is currently running under budget.
The initial performance target is to receive 1 million users in the first 12 months following full public launch, growing to a total of 10 million users by the end of 2006. If these targets are met, the project will be considered to have represented value for money. However, at this early stage, it is not possible to gauge the success of the project on value for money grounds.