Finance

The Transport Direct Programme has been funded initially by Government, although it utilises data and retailing services developed and funded by external stakeholders. Work commissioned by the Department in 2000 indicated that the services that Transport Direct seeks to deliver would not be provided by the private sector. However, it should be noted that the passenger transport industry has invested heavily in information and retailing services and the cost of these far exceed the cost of Transport Direct.

The contract to design, build and operate the Portal was formulated in a manner that called for a number of staged delivery phases that provide incremental increases in functionality.

The initial delivery phase covers the following functions that are in line with the commitments given in the 10-Year Plan:

• Real-time train operating information;
• Some real-time bus information; in the form of Bus Timetables;
• Internet travel information at a single point of contact;
• Link to booking of long distance trunk journeys;
• Internet maps showing selected options.

Subsequent delivery phases will be designed and costed prior to authority being given for their delivery. As previously stated, all delivery phases will be designed following research into user preference and their effectiveness will be evaluated by post-delivery research.

An FOI request made on 4 January 2006 requested the cost of the development of the Transport Direct facility and full details can be found at http://www.dft.gov.uk/foi/responses/2006/foiindexjan06/developmentcosts/