Next Wednesday, the question of the National Bus Strategy for
England will be raised in the House of Lords by . In particular, he will ask about the impact of
traffic congestion on the operation of buses.
explains: "There are some practical obstacles to the
bus industry providing a better quality service. These mainly
relate to congestion which causes buses to be late and
unreliable.
"The purpose of my question is to ask the Minister to help the bus
industry in two ways. First to extend the transport Act 2010 to
apply to all local authorities so that council-employed staff could
issue Penalty Notices to other road users who commit moving traffic
offences. This has already been agreed and I will seek to ensure
some more offences are included.
"Under the same Act, local authorities which are highway
authorities are supposed to manage the highways. Buses are often
delayed by roadworks. I want to know whether authorities are
actually doing this, whether Statutory Undertakers are abusing
their right to designate some failures as emergencies and whether
the fines levied on such abuses are high enough, bearing in mind
the disruption these works often cause."
Notes
Bill Bradshaw started his career as a railwayman in the 1950s,
rising through the ranks to become Operative Superintendent of
the West of England Division, Divisional Manager Liverpool, Chief
Operations Manager at Crewe, Director of Operations and General
Manager at Paddington.
On leaving the railway he became successively Professor of
Transport Management at Salford University, a fellow of Wolfson
College, Oxford and Chairman of Ulsterbus. Latterly he had been a
Board member of Lothian regional Transport, a member of the
Strategic Rail authority and the Commission for Integrated
Transport.
