The Council is also represented on the current National Assembly Transport Forum Working Group reviewing Community Transport policy. The Group, chaired by the Council's Director, will be reporting in autumn 2001. Air Travel is a concern for many people in Wales, concerns including high cost and limited choice. A report on Air Travel from Wales was published in December 2000, the report incorporating many recommendations that would significantly benefit Welsh consumers. Integration has been an on-going theme of Welsh Consumer Council work on transport, emphasing the need for through ticketing, more effective interchange between bus and rail, car and rail, bus and bus and airports and rail.
Information is a key to integration.
While public transport has been a main focus of the Council's work on transport, attention has also been paid to roads and the motor car. During the fuel crisis in 2000 the Council's Head of Research was asked to lead a small group looking at fuel prices, and in Spring 2001 the Council published work on the quality and provision of service stations on motorways and main roads in Wales. These are critical issues for people as consumers, as evidence shows that consumers on low incomes tend to have to pay more for basic services, while having less choice and less control in using their resources. In August 2001 the Council published Consumer Disadvantage and Imperfect Markets, which brings together a mass of data on the Welsh economy, and considers how this affects people as consumers. Debt ius one of the major problems affecting a disproportionate number of consumers in Wales.