§ Mr. FormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what arrangements have been made to fund the London dial-a-ride services.
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§ Mr. NorrisI am pleased to announce that the Government grant to London Transport in 1993–94 for the dial-a-ride services will be £12 million, compared with £10.5 million in 1992–93. This will allow for further improvements in the services, and for the total number of dial-a-ride trips to increase from 770,000 in the present year to some 910,000 next year, a rise of 18 per cent. London Transport's settlement provides for grant for dial-a-ride to rise again to £13.5 million in 1994–95 and £15.2 million in 1995–96. Funding for the scheme over the next three years is therefore planned to be almost 29 per cent. higher in real terms than over the last three years.
This record level of funding will enable dial-a-ride to build on the improvements which will flow from regionalisation. On Wednesday this week, I shall attend the launch of West London dial-a-ride, the first fully regionalised service, at it's new Perivale base. The service will offer seven-day-a-week booking facilities, faster response to telephone inquiries, deal with more trip requests and make more effective use of the vehicles.