EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. In January 2005, the Scottish Executive commissioned Atkins to undertake a study into the availability of information required by disabled people when planning a journey using public transport.
2. The aim of the study was to improve the level of service provided by government supported multi-modal journey planning and information services, such as Transport Direct and Traveline Scotland, to people with a disability.
3. The research focused on accessibility information relating to bus, rail and ferry services and infrastructure. It followed a 2004 Department for Transport (DfT) study which looked at how Transport Direct and Traveline could better meet the information needs of disabled people.
4. A list of travel information was identified by the DfT study as 'essential' for many disabled people when making journey decisions. The list included information on the availability of staff assistance, physical access to vehicles and infrastructure, and contact details of organisations that provide specialist advice to disabled travellers. A lack of this essential information could deter disabled people from undertaking a journey.
5. The objectives of this further study were therefore to:
- Highlight the critical pre-travel information required by disabled people;
- Identify which organisations own the information (data owners);
- Recommend the most efficient method of collecting this data;
- Identify gaps in data collection;
- Recommend how to obtain and maintain this data, where to store it, methods for changing and updating it and who should have responsibility;
- Prioritise a list of data available, in order of ease of collection; and
- Explain how data could be added to existing information systems.
6. The research methodology involved 3 main phases:
- Phase 1: Identification of pre-travel information required by disabled travellers. This phase included a review of the literature and consultation with disability organisations to test the 'essential list' findings of the previous study and to confirm the information most required by disabled people when planning journeys.
- Phase 2: Assessment of existing information sources (consultation with data owners). Using the list of essential information requirements, questionnaires were drawn up for the likely owners of this information - for example, Local Authorities, bus operators and ferry companies. Rail information was discussed with the Association of Train Operating Companies and First ScotRail.
- Phase 3: Analysis and identification of data collection methods. An analysis was then undertaken to assess what data was readily available (already being collected by data owners or very easy to collect) and what information was missing. Possible methods for the collection of existing and new accessibility data were discussed with a selection of data owners.
Findings
7. This research confirmed the findings of the DfT study with regards to the existence of 'essential' pre- travel information for disabled people, some of which, depending on mode, is not currently being provided by the Traveline community.
8. This study further found that the essential information required can vary slightly according to the size and mode of public transport being used and individual disability.
9. For major public transport infrastructure, such as bus and rail stations ('major stops'), consultation with disability organisations suggested there was a need for pre-travel information about facilities such as toilets, low level information monitors and induction loops; facilities not considered critical information for smaller transport nodes such as bus stops ('minor stops').
10. Reasons for this variation were not investigated but it is likely to be due to a number of factors, including differences between minor and major stops in terms of the anticipated walking distance between the drop off point and the vehicle departure point, and also the likelihood for passenger uncertainty.
11. Regardless of slight differences, eight categories of essential pre-travel information were found to be required for all modes of transport. The categories are listed below:
- Staff Assistancee.g. availability, driver assistance and level of disability training;
- Physical Accessibility of Stopse.g. ramps, raised kerbs, tactile paving;
- Physical Accessibility of Vehiclese.g. low floor, wheelchair accessible;
- Help Facilitiese.g. telephones, help points, taxi numbers and details of organisations who could provide specialist;
- Stop Infrastructuree.g. presence of shelters, seating, toilets;
- Timetable & Service Communication Methodse.g. audible announcements, visual announcements, timetable displays;
- Lightinge.g. if stop environment is well lit and whether shelters are illuminated;
- Surfacese.g. whether surfaces are glare free or if shelters are constructed of glass or a non-clear material (important information for those with visual impairments).
12. For the purpose of this list, the information requirements of different disability groups have been aggregated into one homogenous group, even though the nature of different disabilities means that certain features may be more important to one group than another.
13. Information about the availability and level of staff / driver assistance was found to be the most important pre-travel information followed by information about the physical accessibility of both stops and public transport vehicles.
14. In terms of data availability, this study found that the degree to 'essential' information was readily available varied by mode of transport and size of stop.
15. For rail, advance accessibility information is good. The majority of essential information on vehicles and stops can be found on the National Rail Enquiries and First ScotRail websites, or by using the main journey planning services.
16. For bus stations and ferry terminals, very little information on facilities is held electronically by data owners, but it was acknowledged that the relatively small number of stations/terminals per Local Authority area meant that databases could be established quickly and easily. At present, only basic information on services and locations is collated and provided to the Traveline community.
17. Accessibility information for the thousands of bus stops in Scotland was less readily available. Whilst the majority of Local Authorities have electronic bus stop/shelter databases, most Authorities only noted the stop location and presence of a bus shelter.
18. Few Authorities stored data on features such as the presence of raised or lowered kerbs, tactile paving, illumination and seating. Angus and Strathclyde Passenger Transport appeared to record the most information, noting attributes such as telephone boxes, litter bins, width of footways and the presence of electricity (for lighting).
19. The majority of Local Authorities would therefore need to undertake an audit of all their bus stops in order to provide the Traveline community with the essential information required by disabled travellers.
20. With regards to bus vehicles, very little information is held centrally on how accessible individual vehicles are likely to be along a certain route. However, by contacting individual operators or Local Authorities, it is generally possible to obtain this information. The majority of bus services in Scotland are operated by only three operators - First (approximately 50% of the network), Stagecoach (23%) and Lothian Buses Plc (12%).
21. All three companies had low floor bus fleets and they operated dedicated low floor bus routes in some areas, but very few of these routes were found to be highlighted as such on existing time table information. The most accurate source of up to date dedicated low floor bus routes is normally the operator.
22. The level of driver assistance likely to be provided to a disabled person at a bus stop was a concern raised during consultation with the Royal National Institute for the Blind ( RNIB) and operator policy has been included as essential pre-travel information under the staff assistance category. It would be relatively simple to add operator information on levels of staff disability training and likely driver assistance to more general bus service data.
23. For ferries, information on vessel accessibility and terminal accessibility prior to travelling is similarly limited using journey planning services and a potential passenger would generally have to contact the ferry operator directly if they had accessibility questions.
24. However, obtaining accessibility information for Scottish ferry terminals and ferries would be relatively easy and should be prioritised as a 'quick win'. Information sheets showing basic accessibility information for all of the terminals and vessels used by Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac), the largest Scottish internal operator, already exist. It is recommended that additional accessibility features are noted on these sheets for the benefit of passengers with a disability.
25. For the smaller ferry operators, a data aggregator could send a template of vessel accessibility features to each operator and request that a database is completed for each vessel / route operated.
Data Collection & Storage
26. With regards to overall data collection and storage for the additional accessibility information, it is recommended that an organisation be appointed as a data aggregator. The existing data aggregator for travel information in Scotland is Traveline Scotland. Given that Traveline is also responsible for the supply of data to Transport Direct it would seem sensible for Traveline to extend its role to include the aggregation of accessibility information at public transport stops.
27. It would be Traveline's responsibility to collect the existing data into a single dataset and manage the collection of the additional items that are required. Having collected this data Traveline will then be responsible for sending regular feeds to the data consumers and ensuring that the data is kept up to date.
28. The National Public Transport Access Node database ( NaPTAN) is recommended as the most appropriate database for storing stop accessibility attributes because this database already stores basic stop information. The creation of additional accessibility fields which noted the presence of toilets, seating, shelter, kerb heights, telephones etc could be considered for inclusion in the next version of this database. However, given that the latest version (Version 2) has only just been launched, an alternative option would be to develop a parallel feed to NaPTAN.
29. For vehicle attribute data it is recommended that a vehicle attribute field is added to TransXChange (a national data standard for the exchange of bus route and timetable information between operators and Traffic Area Offices etc). All stops referred to in TransXChange have a unique NaPTAN reference number or identity.
Conclusions
30. It is important to improve the service provided to disabled people by national travel information services as soon as possible. This study has confirmed that disabled people have critical pre-travel information requirements regarding the accessibility and facilities available at public transport stops and on board vehicles. Lack of this information in advance of a journey may lead to uncertainty and act as a barrier to travel.
31. Quick wins should therefore be prioritised for action. Even with quick wins there will be issues regarding data quality, but there are a number of actions which could be implemented relatively quickly and which would benefit a large number of public transport users.
32. For example, accessibility information about bus stations and ferry terminals is currently not collated and disseminated to the same level of detail as that for rail stations, yet due to the lower numbers of bus stations and ferry terminals, this would be relatively easy to rectify and would bring benefits to a high number of potential passengers.
33. Improving the level of information available for bus stops will be the most resource intensive, due to the numbers of stops involved. However, existing bus stop databases already exist and these should be aggregated by Traveline in their current form and the required information fed into NaPTAN. Guidance on expanding existing databases and establishing new databases modelled on best practice templates should be sent to Local Authorities as soon as possible.
34. For rail stations and rail vehicles, very little accessibility information is missing from existing databases and the National Rail Enquiries and First ScotRail websites provide the majority of the essential information required by disabled travellers. The Scottish Executive should liaise with the Association of Train Operating Companies ( ATOC) to discuss whether essential information not currently collected could be included in future versions of the station information page, with the agreement of the main train operating company in Scotland, First ScotRail.