Campaign to boost public transport use launched.
A team from Transport for West Midlands has hit the streets to boost bus travel as part of a national campaign.
Catch the Bus Week launched with a roadshow in Birmingham city centre, where potential passengers were shown round brand new state-of-the-art vehicles and told all about the benefits of bus travel.
TfWM, the transport arm of the West Midlands Combined Authority was hailed as a model of best practice by Claire Haigh, chief executive of Greener Journeys, the campaign body behind CTBW. She travelled from London to join TfWM’s managing director Laura Shoaf and director of transport services Pete Bond for the event, on Monday.
Claire said: “I particularly wanted to come here because TfWM is an absolutely brilliant example of how to work together with bus companies and engage with the public.
“The team here have been fantastic supporters of this campaign all the way through and we regularly hold up TfWM as an exemplar of best practice. It is vital that we get this message over to people – there is a direct, quantifiable link showing how important buses are to the economy and the wider economic impact of choosing public transport.”
Cllr Kath Hartley, lead member for putting passengers first on the WMCA’s transport delivery committee, said: “We are delighted that Claire chose to come and join our launch and that our work in this area is recognised nationally. We have been innovators in building close working relationships with operators through our Bus Alliance.”
Details of the week’s events and competitions are on the Network West Midlands website – including the return of last year’s highly popular #busselfies, where travellers can take a selfie and tag Network West Midlands on Facebook for the chance to win a family day out.
There is also a colouring competition for youngsters and a non-user survey where participants will be entered into a daily prize draw for bus tickets and weekly draw for a £100 shopping voucher.
TfWM is also holding other promotional events during CTBW – 11am to 3pm Friday July 8th on Coventry’s Broadgate and on 11am to 1pm Saturday July 9th, at Merry Hill in Dudley, where there will be a Your Public Transport Matters roadshow.
…And what about moving bus routes to the edge of the city centre in the vain hope that the single Metro line that replaces them will lose less money than is currently the case (and with further plans to move bus stops to the Queensway and beyond planned)? Or the installation of bus stops with very poor cover and ‘seats’ that you can do no more than rest against rather than sit on? Or the redevelopment of the city’s main railway station with very few close at hand bus stops? Bet Ms. Haigh missed all those.