Transport is a vital part of all of our lives: it is the lifeblood of our communities and is key to the success of our local economies, giving us access to jobs, skills, leisure and health opportunities. Good transport policy can make a big difference to people’s lives – not just directly in terms of providing better connectivity but also by supporting wider policy objectives.
Transport can be used as both a means and as an end in delivering a range of policy objectives. A new bus route can connect a community with a hospital or a town centre; this new connectivity generates new opportunities and better outcomes for the local area and its residents and businesses. These improvements manifest themselves in terms of greater economic activity, better public health and a better quality of life. This is why transport must be considered within a wider policy context and also how good transport policy is vitally important and must not be sidelined as a Cinderella subject.
Today, a number of writers will address this from a number of different angles. The big picture is vital: transport policy needs to start with a clear long-term strategy recognising the role and value of transport and how it will make a difference. Labour needs to establish a clear vision and narrative explaining how we can use transport policy to generate these better outcomes for everyone.
We need to plan for the long term with schemes such as a national high speed rail network. We also need a plan to enable the decision-making powers and funding to be focused on ensuring delivery. For too long, Whitehall has been slow in delivering major improvements for much of the country outside of London and the south-east. Labour transport policy must explain how devolution of powers and funding can empower our regional cities to accelerate improvements that can make a real difference to all of our lives.
There are other problems that must be addressed. The methodology for assessing schemes does not take into account the wider benefits and impacts that transport schemes can have. We also need to consider the context of transport schemes and how they can improve places in myriad ways. Transport policy should be integrated with planning and economic development to focus on improving places and delivering those wider benefits in much wider terms than a new railway station – instead we need to look at how transport can enable much wider gains.
We often think of cars and trains when talking transport. But, with the majority of public transport users relying on buses to get to work or college, the roles of buses is fundamental. Cities stand or fall on the success of their bus network in keeping people moving. Our railways are becoming increasingly important and are seeing huge ongoing growth in demand. Has privatisation therefore worked? Or is it more a case of circumstance and huge ongoing subsidy?
One final thing: we think of people when we talk of transport. But freight transport is vitally important as well. Moving more freight by rail is happening now but the success of passenger services is squeezing that growth. We neglect consideration of freight transport at our peril.
So good transport policy can generate significant wider social, economic and environmental benefits. We are seeing (at last) real recognition of the importance of transport, the growth in rail use, a huge interest and uptake in cycling, the possible arrival of peak car use and lower car ownership (especially among the younger sections of the population and in cities).
Perhaps most critically of all, the ‘softer’ areas are also receiving attention: the importance of fare levels, simple and easy-to-use ticketing and travel information, the increasing use of technology and a focus on the whole door-to-door journey.
I hope Labour has at last recognised that transport is a key policy area that can bring very real success through the delivery of very real positive outcomes to all of us – maybe the integrated transport revolution is finally here?
—————————————————————————————
Alex Burrows is head of transport and infrastructure at insight public affairs and former head of strategy at Centro, the west Midlands integrated transport authority. He writes in a personal capacity, and tweets @alexcburrows
—————————————————————————————
Really good point about freight! Freight capacity will increase in line with network capacity benefits gained from something like HS2 in my humble opinion.
Perhaps that’s right, but don’t forget, whilst 16 million tonnes of freight is moved by rail in a year, over 390 million tonnes of freight is moved by sea. So surely if the movement of freight is important (which obviously it is) a comprehensive strategy to boost and protect maritime trade is vital to ensuring transport policy contributes to economic success.