TravelWatch SouthWest

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Give me a while, ellendune, and I'll compile something later today. 

[eightf48544]

Is there a corresponding Travel Watch for the Thames Valley?

[grahame]

Is there a corresponding Travel Watch for the Thames Valley?

My understanding (and subject to correction) is that there are a number of "TravelWatch"es, but not covering anything like the whole of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).   And that "TravelWatch London" has a different basic - perhaps a more formal an statutory one (?) that the others.  I don't know of one that includes the Thames Valley (downstream of the Oxfordshire / Wiltshire border) in its remit.

There's been a lot of passenger transport liaison / user organisations over time, and there have been renamings too ...

TravelWatch SouthWest (TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website)) was established in 2001 as The South West Public Transport Users' Forum (SWPTUF^▸ (South West Passenger Transport User's Forum (now TWSW - Travel Watch South West))) to promote the interests of public transport users in the South West of England government region (comprising the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire and the unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, Bournemouth, Bristol, North Somerset, Plymouth, Poole, South Gloucestershire, Swindon and Torbay)^the Forum became a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee, in August 2005. SWPTUF adopted the trading name of TravelWatch SouthWest in June 2006 and the Community Interest Company changed name to TravelWatch SouthWest CIC^» (Community Interest Company - about) in November 2008.

If you're researching further, have a look a these name:

Transport Users Consultative Committee
Rail User's Consultative Committee
Public Transport Forum
TravelWatch
Passenger Focus

and here are a couple of links that may help

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmtran/750/750vw52.htm
http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/about/history

I know that Passenger Focus was working on a resource listing all user groups, so they should be able to help with "groups of groups" too 

[paul7575]

There used to be separate passenger watchdogs (Transport User's Consultative Commitees at one time?) all over the country, but they were replaced by just one by 2005, whose 'public' name is Passenger Focus, their official name is different though.

Passenger Focus has a concise history here:  http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/about/history 

It follows that 'Travelwatch South West' is not actually the formal successor to the earlier regional talking shop, and their use of the word 'Travelwatch' is also a bit misleading, as there is no real comparison between their status and the similarly named organisation in London.

What I can't get clear is whether Passenger Focus's national remit actually inlcudes London, or if it is somehow delegated to London Travelwatch, which seems to be an older organisation by a few years, presumably tied up somehow with the GLA?

Paul

[ellendune]

Of course we must remember that London is so very different to other cities that it has to have special treatment.  They still ahev regualted buss services that other aprts of the country just dream about. This has always been the case. Could it be because important politicians live in Londo  Or am I just cynical?