Baroness Kramer, Under Secretary of State for Transport visited St Albans on 24th October to see how the work of the Network St Albans Quality Partnership has delivered a package of public transport initiatives.

The partnership was the first voluntary partnership of its kind in the United Kingdom, delivering improvements to public transport infrastructure, ticketing and fares, network design and marketing and communications.

Baroness Kramer showed particular interest in how the partnership began, and how the partners work to deliver change. Interest was also shown in how the multi-operator ticketing (called BusNet) has made travelling by public transport easier and more attractive to the general public.

Partners from Hertfordshire County Council, the University and Local District also demonstrated how Smart Mobile Ticketing is being trialled via the INTALINK app, with the aim of reducing the time it takes to get on buses and buying tickets – removing unnecessary delays. Baroness Kramer was also taken into St Albans using one of the University’s electric cars (soon to be seen in St Albans), and was shown the improvements to bus stops on St Peters Street, including bus stop specific information, Real Time Screens and downloadable smart timetable information.