Any Other Comments

From the seventy-six responses received, forty-three opted not to leave any additional comments. Eleven individuals provided additional comments, four specifically referencing the current situation in England where BOD is mandatory. One response from an individual supported aligning with England and Wales ‘as much as possible’ while another warned that we should only align where there are no known issues, but where something is not working, ‘it is sensible to modify that element of the system for introduction in Scotland’. There were also calls for greater coverage and more reliability in bus services generally, and one comment noted that much of this information is already available for trains. The need for information in multiple languages, particularly for tourists, was also raised.

Within the organisations category there were twenty-one unique responses, covering a range of views. One common theme, shared by bus operators, groups representing passengers and the two statutory advisory Boards who provided a response, was the need to have integrated data across a range of modes. There were a number of calls for better accessibility information, for example, the Institute of Blind People raised the importance of passenger information displays (PIDS), Age Scotland advised that knowing which access features (‘mobility aids’) were present would be valuable information to the groups they represent, as well as raising the variable operator policies around mobility scooters. One organisation representing tourism provided comprehensive information about public transport use by visitors, and how this compares to the broader UK. The opportunity to increase visitor use of public transport was considered to be able to be supported using BOD, particularly in rural areas. One passenger focused group was unsure if Transport Scotland intend to operate a similar analysis service to the DfT’s ‘ABOD’ service, in particular “[this organisation] feels that there is a strong case for punctuality and cancellations data to be readily accessible”. At present the same legislative basis exists for the same data sets as are collated for England, making it possible to look at these two areas if required.