§ Mr. Newtonasked the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his Written Answer to the hon. Member for Braintree, Official Report, column 455, 16th November 1976, if he will give details of the rural transport experiments which he is pressing on with setting up and state when he expects the results of such experiments to give rise to a policy.
§ Mr. HoramMy hon. Friend the then Minister for Transport gave details of the areas chosen for the rural transport experiments in reply to Questions from hon. Members on 4th August 1976. More precise areas for study within the counties concerned were chosen by the Steering Committee set up to co-ordinate the experiments, at its meeting on 28th October. Investigations of transport provision and needs in those areas are now in progress and will result in recommendations to the Steering Committee for experimental schemes, which I hope can be launched in late spring and early summer next year. Schemes will need to be in full operation right round the year before they can be completely evaluated, but preliminary results should be available much sooner. Results from the868W experiments will make an important contribution to development of Government policy on rural transport, but there are wider considerations, which are among the issues being discussed meanwhile with interested bodies as part of the transport policy review.