§ Lord Bradshawasked Her Majesty's Government:
What further steps they are taking to promote the reliability of local bus services following the decision of the Transport Tribunal not to uphold the standards set by the Traffic Commissioners in recent cases in Bristol and Leeds. [HL832]
§ Lord Macdonald of TradestonWe attach great importance to improving the reliability of local bus services. There is a general objective in the transport 10-year plan to secure improvements in punctuality and reliability and there is a specific target to be achieved by June 2001 for no more than 0.5 per cent of services to be cancelled for reasons within an operator's control. The doubling of local transport capital spending over the next five years announced on 14 December 2000 should allow local authorities to provide up to 4,500 kilometres of busways, quality bus corridors, bus lanes and other traffic priority measures, all of which should help to improve bus reliability.
Additional funding has been made available this financial year for monitoring to ensure that services are being run according to the registered details. My department and the Traffic Commissioners are considering the implications for future disciplinary proceedings of the Transport Tribunal's recent decisions on the appeals by Yorkshire Rider Ltd and First Bristol Buses Ltd.