EMTA – April 2007

 About pteg and the PTEs

• Six English PTEs serving six of largest conurbations (population of 11 million)

• pteg brings them together to share good practice and pursue issues of common interest

• Support Unit established four years ago

• Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and TfL are associate members

 Key challenges

• Effective management and development of city region

transport networks dismantled during Thatcher era (in

particular deregulation of bus network)

• With UK city regions on the rise and the success of the

TfL / Mayoral model the momentum now is for more

devolved powers to the city regions

• Forthcoming draft legislation will ‘reform’ PTEs –

possibly giving them more influence over highways

network

 Key challenges

• More powers on bus – though network franchising still very

challenging proposition

• UK government wants more road user charging pilots

(West Midlands and Greater Manchester are front runners)

and will make more funding available to ease the politics

• Some, but slow, progress on allowing city regions to raise

more transport funding locally

• ‘funding gap’ on transport between London and the next tier

of major cities

 Modal progress

• Bus use, at best, flat-lining outside London (other

than growing number of free riders)

• Heavy rail growing very rapidly – and recovering

from worst of post-privatisation meltdown

• Light rail performing well but still seen as ‘damaged

goods’ by government due to high costs…leaving

BRT and tram-trains as ‘flavour of the month’

 Getting there…?

• Still some way to go before we have the normal

situation of public authorities determining,

procuring and (to some extent) funding their sub-

regional transport networks but…there is

momentum in that direction

 pteg and Europe

• North West region’s Brussel’s Office to represent

pteg on trial basis

• pteg European group to be re-established

• Some PTEs dissatisfied with costs and benefits of

UITP membership

• Exploring potential for combined membership of

EMTA