As we continue to celebrate CT Week, we want to increase public knowledge of community transport users. Essentially, community transport is about people and connecting communities.

Community transport services in the UK encompass a diverse range of vital transport options, playing a crucial role in enhancing mobility and inclusivity within the wider transport network.

These services utilise various vehicles, ranging from minibuses to mopeds, and include a variety of essential offerings such as voluntary car schemes, community bus services, school transport, hospital transport, dial-a-ride, wheels-to-work, and group hire services.

UK charity leads first-ever Community Transport Week 

Local charities and community groups across the UK are preparing to celebrate the first-ever Community Transport Week this October.

For nearly 60 years, Community Transport has delivered lifeline services to keep communities connected, helping millions of people to access colleges, hospitals, schools, shops, universities, workplaces and more, as well as creating local jobs and volunteering opportunities. 

Our first-ever Climate Action programme in Scotland has gone from strength to strength this year.

So far, the programme has involved:

Human rights are under attack or in retreat around the world. In Scotland, however, our government is considering how to protect and expand our rights by incorporating major international human rights treaties into Scots law.

Scotland was one of the first countries in the world to declare a global climate emergency in 2019.

We have ambitious targets to reduce car use by 20% by 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2045. Yet we’ve missed our legally binding carbon reduction targets in 8 out of the last 12 years. Transport emissions are stubbornly high, almost unchanged in three decades.

The Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme (MiDAS) has been an intrinsic part of the community transport sector since its inception in 1994. As the training scheme reaches 30 years old, CTA’s transformation plan goes far beyond the regular minor amendments that have been made every 2 years. CTA has spent the past 18 months working in partnership with Hampshire County Council (the original developers of MiDAS) to transform the MiDAS offering. We are maintaining the original guiding ethos of ‘by the sector for the sector.

We welcome DfT’s new Code of Practice for Mobility as a Service, which prioritises accessibility, digital inclusion and Community Transport.

Back in May 2022, CTA published our response to the Department for Transport (DfT)’s consultation on proposals for a new Code of Practice for Mobility as a Service (also known as MaaS), which could have significant implications for the Community Transport sector.

We all know a minibus gets passengers from point A to B, but what else can it do? Well, it turns out it can change someone’s life too.