The Act General Background
281.Sections 28 to 32 of the 2001 Act contain existing provision on ticketing arrangements and ticketing schemes in relation to local services. They require local transport authorities to keep under consideration what ticketing arrangements are needed in their area and give authorities a power to make ticketing schemes requiring such arrangements to be put in place if they are not able to arrange for them voluntarily.
282.“Ticketing arrangements” are defined in section 28(5) to mean arrangements where a single transaction (e.g. buying a ticket) gives a person the right to make more than one journey on particular bus services or to make a single journey on two or more services or to choose between different operators providing the same journey.
283.By virtue of sections 54(2) of both the Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Act 2006 and the Edinburgh Tram (Line Two) Act 2006, the tram services provided under those Acts are treated as “local services” and so are covered by the definition of ticketing arrangements despite not being bus services.
284.Section 28 requires local transport authorities to keep under review what ticketing arrangements should be made available for their area. If an authority thinks that some arrangements are not being made available which should be, they are to work with the operators of local services to make the ticketing arrangements available.
285.Section 29 gives local transport authorities the power to make ticketing schemes requiring operators of local services to implement ticketing arrangements. The power can only be exercised if the authority considers the proposed scheme would be in the interest of the public and would implement the authority’s general policies and if the competition test set out in section 37 is met.
286.Sections 30 and 31 set out the process for making a ticketing scheme including consultation and notification.
287.Section 32 provides that operators of local services must implement any ticketing arrangements required under a ticketing scheme.