A probe into Teesside’s “crazy” transport system will investigate how to bring bus, rail and other services together better amid calls for urgent action.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority is launch a review of transport by its overview and scrutiny committee. Head of transport Alan Weston said: “It is about how we deliver the transport system required to maximise the economic growth of the Tees Valley.

“The two things we’re really trying to achieve is removing those barriers, enabling access to existing employment and education opportunities, and about delivering that new transport infrastructure to enable the major employment or housing sites.”

He proposed topics to the committee on Wednesday (October 16), including focuses on rail, buses, active travel like walking and cycling, and access to work and education. One suggestion was to look into transport integration including timetables and ticketing, using funding for extra bus services, and speaking to operators and stakeholders.

Councillor David Branson, chair of the authority’s transport sub-committee, said: “The whole aim here is to look at the extent to which the transport system is really doing its job. We have a real problem.

“If you look at car ownership in Teesside, it’s one of the lowest in the country, and yet we don’t have in my opinion an effective public transport system. Certainly for the peripheral areas of towns like Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar, and I’m speaking from my own experience representing a ward on the edge of Middlesbrough.

“Transport is a problem for people and there is a real difficulty in sometimes getting to education. The whole idea is to focus on that,” added the Middlesbrough Council Coulby Newham member.

“We’ve had a significant change now with rail ownership. It will be over time, that might have a significant impact on what our further plans are,” he added, referring to a new bill which will allow the government to bring rail passenger services back into public ownership

He also spoke of the importance of being able to transfer from one service to another: “Travelling by train and to go by bus, sometimes that’s the only way in which people get from A to B. They can’t use one service.

“I think probably the most important thing is integration of services. How can rail and bus services be integrated is probably the one that I’m concerned about more than anything else.”

Cllr Rachel Creevy from Hartlepool Council agreed this was the fundamental issue: “With Hartlepool we have a train station with a transport hub next to it that hardly any buses ever go to.” Cllr Steve Nelson from Stockton Council, chair of the overview and scrutiny committee, said the topic came up at almost every meeting.

Cllr Glen Nightingale from Redcar and Cleveland Council said: “Perhaps it might have been better if I’d just banged my head against one of those walls because we’ve tried to get this issue sorted. It’s about interconnectivity, it isn’t just between rail and bus and cars and so forth, it’s on the bus network itself.

“The Express that goes through Swans Corner doesn’t stop there. It’s a nodal point for other services to stop but the bus operators will not stop there to pick up passengers. It’s just an illustration of the crazy way the bus operation is actually operating.

“The system here, with several different towns, just isn’t working. When you don’t have, for example, a connection to the airport from the rail system effectively, something is radically wrong and some urgent action is needed.”

Cllr Ian Blades from Middlesbrough Council highlighted access to work and schools, saying young Teesport workers without cars could not get buses to work at 6am. He said: “Transport is a barrier to work, especially for our young people.”

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Cllr Andy Keir from Darlington Council said: “I think the state of the bus services in the Darlington area in particular are poor. Even when you put a schedule in, they don’t meet it.

“Unless we fix the constituent parts that are being integrated, it’s going to fall down anyway. If we can get that right and you do get the transport going to the right places, you get people using it.

“Let’s change the transport system. Make sure the bloody buses turn up when they say they’re going to turn up because that’s the biggest turn-off for everybody.”

The forthcoming review will be discussed further in future meetings.