The title of the transport policy review document Maria Eagle launched yesterday says it all really: Empowering Communities to Improve Transport. Historically the Department for Transport has micromanaged transport from Whitehall to the whole of the rest of the country. This situation is untenable.

From the outset, Labour’s transport team have set out a very clear philosophy of how transport should be governed – local empowerment with accountability being pushed out from the Department for Transport to transport authorities already doing much of the job on the ground. From that comes a sufficient level of guiding principles building on the philosophy in the title and, strikingly, a clear impression that the detail really is for the regions and conurbations to sort for themselves.

It is important to note two points: per head of population, spending on London’s transport infrastructure is more than three times that of the rest of England; and, London also has significant additional transport powers as well. These points combined explain why London has vastly superior transport infrastructure and networks. This in turn makes London a more attractive place to invest in, to work in and to live in. The effect of that is why we have this huge economic disparity between London and the south-east and the rest of the country.

The policy review is comfortingly clear – London has benefitted from the bus franchise system and investment that means competition in the bus market takes place not on the streets, but in the franchise competition. This lets the private bus operators focus on delivering the best service for passengers instead of slugging it out with each other in bus wars on a race to the bottom. That is the difference between London and the other major cities at present and it has to change.

Transport is a big, complex beast that needs strategic planning. Planning transport needs a big vision with an overview power to set out what is needed which can then be specified to a transport operator to deliver. High quality information, infrastructure, accessibility and connectivity is of fundamental importance to all aspects of all our lives. Transport is a public service that provides a vital public good. It is too important to be left to an open market and commercial priorities to decide who gets anything, when they get it and to what quality.

This gets us to the exciting point – real reform to hand powers to transport authorities over bus and rail services so that they can be designed and delivered to provide real benefit to the people. We need to see these powers handed over to be able to set the level and frequency of services, to be able to deliver cheaper fares with integrated ticketing across transport operators (which is vital in order to deliver smartcards outside of London), to demand cleaner and better buses and trains, to deliver much improved passenger information and a better, safer, more pleasant experience for all passengers.

It is of immense frustration to me that I often speak to public transport users who are incredulous at bus services being cut, of facing fare rises during such tough times, at certain places not being served by public transport from early evening and being cut off unless you walk or take a taxi.

But it is of even greater frustration to public transport users in general that there is little ability to improve matters. Transport authorities outside of London champion passengers but are stymied by not yet having the powers to be able to strategically plan and manage truly integrated transport networks aimed at delivering world class affordable services for passengers. It looks like Labour is going to finally change this and bring forward the new transport world.

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Alex Burrows is head of strategy at Centro, the west Midlands integrated transport authority. He writes in a personal capacity, and tweets @alexcburrows