In the first part of a look this month at the region’s bus operations, DAVID JENKINS finds that public transport is at the heart of policies on car use, parking, carbon reduction and ticketing that make its largest city a model for what could be achieved by local authorities elsewhere in the UK
It is surely no coincidence that Nottingham’s two main operators — Nottingham City Transport and Trent Barton — are frequently award winners.
Transport Focus’s most recent survey of bus passengers shows that in the city of Nottingham, 77% were satisfied with value for money — the highest figure in England — while 90% were satisfied with journey times; again, the highest figure. Encouragingly, the number highlighting congestion as an issue dropped from 27% in 2016 to 18% in this year’s results.
The ability to control congestion is not in the hands of the bus operator, but of the local authority. And in Nottingham City Council, there is a highly supportive authority indeed. It has a long history of radical intervention, as far back as the 1970s when Zone-&-Collar, a well-meaning attempt to reduce traffic in the city centre, was perhaps 20 years too soon. In 2012 it pioneered introduction of the a Workplace P…
