We know what makes the new administration tick – but the details are up for grabs
It’s too early to say how the new Westminster administration’s transport policy will shake out in detail – but we do know what’s making it tick. In every dream home a heart ache Housing is the leitmotif for what the new administration wants to do. For the public transport sector the nature of an expansion […]
My latest ‘Connections’ newsletter l Issue 6 I October 2024 I Stories of progressive change
In this issue (download it here)… ? Policy geek postcard on Sheffield’s stunning grey to green transformation? Stories of progressive change: the freeway fighters of America?? In depth: How Ireland is challenging car captivity? The new Westminster administration’s big choices, number one: putting the public back into public transport control and ownership? The future shock […]
Putting the public back into public transport
The battle of ideas over the best way to provide public transport is effectively over. Even the last Conservative government had given up on advocating for bus deregulation or anything remotely like the original rail privatisation vision. The new Labour government is far more enthusiastic about reversing both than the last Labour administration. Hence the […]
Ireland challenges car dependency
Ireland’s ‘celtic tiger’ boom (between the mid-1990s and 2008) turned the Republic from one of the poorer western European countries to one of the wealthiest. In doing so it put a new car and a new house suddenly within reach of many more people. When the boom times ended a property bubble burst and Ireland […]
My latest ‘Connections’ newsletter | Issue 5 | June 24 | stories of progressive change
In this issue (download it here): ? News on fresh thinking on decarbonising suburbs? What the general election could mean for local transport?? Policy geek postcard from Stockholm? Stories of progressive change: Buses in the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire? In depth: Time to think big again on the look and feel of public transport? […]
What will the election mean for local transport?
My analysis for Local Transport Today Many Local Transport Today readers will be hoping for a new Government which will address the underfunding of local transport, unlock genuine devolution of responsibility , and get behind radical, climate-focussed policies designed to promote modal shift and reduce the need to travel. So, how likely is all this, asks […]
A journey by design?
A draining COVID epidemic and the ungainly pirouettes of government policy on public transport from one extreme (‘we want all day bus lanes’) to the other (‘we hate all day bus lanes ‘), has not been conducive to big and optimistic thinking about how public transport should look and feel in the future. But ready […]
‘LocHal’ – the library at the heart of railway regeneration in Tilburg
These days, on my list of things I could do when I have time in a new place, is to visit the library. It feels almost revolutionary these days to go somewhere where you are not obliged to spend anything at all. The ‘LocHal’ library in Tilburg is a beauty. And another example of how mainland Europe […]
Connections newsletter April 2024
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Paris and London – opposites attract on progressive transport policies
I used to take the view that Paris was an ugly city (quasi motorways alongside the Seine, the dreary Haussmann boulevards, the Eiffel Tower) but with a lot of beautiful details. As well as a city that beyond the ‘grands projets’ didn’t have so much to offer on progressive thinking on transport. But the motorways by […]