IIn the last issue we reported a significant transaction involving a car hire business moving across into urban mobility, with the acquisition of the ZipCar car share system by Avis. It’s not the only major strategic move being made by major players interested in a new role for cars in cities, and now the subject of New Transit’s new Car Share and Urban Mobility event in Brussels on 9th July. Another major deal has seen the big money US private equity firm Carlyle Group buying...

A London based company is developing its shared executive travel minibus service with the introduction of all electric 10 and 16 seater vehicles. The GUTSi Executive Transfer service is based upon consolidating regular passenger journeys for people commuting in London and seeking to avoid the stresses of public transport whilst able to use their travel time for working without all travelling in separate vehicles. The GUTSi Express Commuting Service brings together commuters each morning using...

The news that Avis have bought Zipcar, and that car2go (run by Daimler, Mercedes’s parent company) have begun building up carshare operations around London, has further highlighted the potential of this sector to produce new solutions for urban mobility and potentially pose a challenge to traditional public transport. But will these new players in the urban transport mix - including other major car manufacturers like Peugeot and BMW and car hire firms like Hertz, Sixt and Enterprise -...

Across the transport sector there are certain individuals whose activities stand out either as beyond the significance of their own specific role within an organisation, or for introducing new ideas from an inventive technological or entrepreneurial standpoint. In an era of rapid change to the way transport services are managed, marketed and paid for it is not surprising that a group of such people feature amongst our power list. Elaine Rosscraig, Stagecoach’s head of bus customer...

A group of individuals hold significant power in their role defining regulatory frameworks and supervising transport industry activities. Following last year’s Competition Commission inquiry into the local bus market, headed by Jeremy Peat, that disappointed some with its rejection of any new regulation, MPs on the transport select committee called for greater resources to be given to the traffic commissioners in order for them to supervise the proposed new bus operators’ code of...

Smart Links - the range of short distance, often automated transport modes - have begun to shake up long-held models of what public transport is, and what it can do, over the last decade. Yet they are still only just beginning to show their true utility. This fledgling sector could well be in a position similar to the early years of railway development, when pioneering lines showed the potential, but it took several years before the rest of the world caught on and railway mania exploded. If...

More than 50 exhibitors met over 500 visitors at this year’s Travel 2020 event at the Kia Oval in London on October 10th and 11th. Smart systems for passenger information, payment, management support and customer service represented the core exhibits, along with complimentary transport and mobility concepts including car share and demand responsive systems. Visitors came from transport operators in the UK and Europe, local transport authorities and government bodies, plus innovative...

Train operator First Capital Connect has introduced a cashless payment service for taxis picking up passengers at its stations in the south-east of England. The roll-out of the new payment arrangements started in June. The Dash cashless technology, including a mobile phone app, has been developed and delivered by Adaptis Solutions, a provider of transport payment platforms for parking, permits, buses, boats and trains. Manni Marway, chief executive of Adaptis Solutions, said: “There is...

Life as a councillor continues to be interesting. I’ll come to the saga of our bridge works in my Golcar ward later but first I’ll reflect on some more strategic activities I’ve been involved in. The Local Government Association held its annual ‘rural conference’ in the splendid surroundings of the Low Wood Hotel on Lake Windermere last month. Myself and a Conservative colleague represented Kirklees. Given the current political balance within rural England the...

Businesses in London’s West End are calling for the number of buses serving Oxford Street to be dramatically reduced when Crossrail opens, with more roadspace being given to pedestrians. The call comes in a new five-year business plan by the New West End Company (NWEC), the Business Improvement District (BID) management and promotional company for Bond Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street and 22 connecting streets.  NWEC describes the capital’s east-west Crossrail scheme,...

Some readers of LTT may recall an article by me in February 2011, ‘Some councils are giving community transport providers an easy ride’ and the time is now appropriate for an update in where we are with all of this. I know I am in danger of repeating myself but the commercial PCV (passenger carrying vehicle) operating licence operators are not against Section 19 permit holders and community transport organisations, as there is a vital role for them to fulfil in the spirit of the...

Relatively short connections in the transport network can have a disproportionate significance in both addressing end-to-end journey requirements, and complementing the accessibility needs of large activity sites and potential new development opportunities. In this field, some recent innovative systems are showing exciting potential to tackle problems in new ways – and even more economically and rapidly than hitherto. A group of emerging, new generation short transport concepts are...

A range of innovative concepts have been emerging to provide rail based transport solutions for areas of low demand over short distances. The fruits of both individual inventors and large companies looking for the next technology, they have featured smaller, alternatively powered vehicles capable of running on both existing and new track for journey lengths of 2kms or so. The quest has been to find economical and attractive links to the main rail networks that can replace conventional branch...

An innovative French scheme appears to have solved many of the financial and operational issues around the provision of Demand Responsive Transport (DRT). The scheme, based around St Brieuc (Brittany), uses bespoke computer technology to deliver a comprehensive half-hourly ‘virtual’ bus network in rural areas, which cannot sustain conventional bus services. It books and plans journeys on local taxis, and automatically pays taxi providers. While the advantages of DRT are well...

Around  40% of Europeans  choose not to travel using shared or collective transport if the journey involves a connection. And, in Europe, 83% of us prefer to use a car for our daily or occasional travel. These two percentages are perplexing in this age of eco-citizenship. Although the range of shared and collective transport options is ever-increasing in Europe, the constraints related to a trip whose components and uncertainties are beyond the control of an individual continue to be...

The development of transport services in the UK and across much of the world is a “market failure”, that has caused huge costs to the economy, health and the environment according to TRL’s new director of sustainable transport, Heather Allen. Allen, formerly sustainable transport manager at UITP, the International Association of Public Transport, told the Travel 2020 conference that in contrast to other public services such as health and education, the quality of transport...