TR200 The Green Party believes it is the government's responsibility to ensure that all urban and rural areas of the United Kingdom are served by a public transport system that will allow for a large proportion of the current private motorised journeys to transfer to these modes. To this end, it must ensure that public transport is designed and planned to create a user-friendly service, that is reliable, affordable, accessible, integrated with all other sustainable modes and environmentally friendly. Public service, not private profit, must be the primary function of public transport.
TR201 The Green Party believes that all levels of government have responsibilities for setting service levels to cover all public transport, whether privately or publicly provided, which they would have responsibility for enforcing. Service levels would cover such factors as frequency of bus and train services and would take into account the size of locations served and their remoteness from the nearest centre where a wide range of local services are available. Local transport users must be fully involved in decisions on service levels.
TR202 Information on all aspects of public transport, such as tickets, fares, timetables and integration of services, needs to be easily available to all transport users. All information should be available on the internet and by telephone, and at public libraries and transport information centres, which should be created at all major public transport interchanges. Information on local services should be available at all bus stops and train stations. All information must be in a simple, easy to understand format.
TR203 Local authorities will also have responsibility for ensuring that all public transport modes are fully integrated with each other and are easily accessible to all disabled people and those arriving by bicycle and foot.
TR204 Whilst public transport is generally a much safer form of transport than private transport in terms of injuries per distance travelled, it is recognised that safety is perceived by the public to be a problem, especially due to the scale of accidents where injuries result. The Green Party would, thus, devote resources to improving the safety of public transport.
TR205 The Green Party recognises that one of the major barriers to people using public transport, particularly women and the elderly, is a concern for personal safety. To this end, we promote policies on staffing at rail stations (see TR237) and bus conductors (see TR277). For safety in and around bus stops, rail stations and other public transport termini, the Green Party would invest in general structural improvements. These could include better lighting, enclosed waiting points, provision of local emergency numbers and electronic information on services, and other security measures such as CCTV.
TR206 Public transport is dependent upon the goodwill of its workforce who, by the nature of the work, have to endure unsocial working hours, including split shifts, frustrating working conditions, mainly due to the lack of vision in transport planning, and relatively poor pay. The Green Party would seek to improve all these factors, along with greater involvement of the staff in the running of the transport systems.