No more tinkering – we need ambition
Bus funding helps to achieve a multitude of policy objectives for government – but real reform is required, not more of the same, writes Jonathan Bray. Putting public money into the bus is one of the biggest bargains in transport policy – but despite this the bus has been one of the biggest losers from […]
Buses – it isn't all about congestion
I agree with Brian Souter. When he said at last year’s Scottish CPT event that the bus industry relied too much on gut instinct and not enough on research. The Stagecoach chairman went on: “How much have we put into research and development in the last five years? We’re getting worse, not better…” Indeed nothing […]
The high street retail apocalypse (and should public transport learn to stop worrying about it?)
I took the temperature of the debate about the future of UK city and town centres at a packed out Key Cities conference this week. Here’s what I learned… Is the end nigh for the high street? Most things are still bought in shops, however high street retail is clearly in retreat as on-line sales […]
The secret life of the street – and what we need to know to make future streets work
For a couple of years now I have been banging on about the need for a debate on future streets (i.e. about how best to reconcile the complexities of all the different calls on street space – or more accurately the space between the buildings). So I am pleased to see that this is an […]
I build therefore I sprawl
In his latest article for Passenger Transport Magazine, Jonathan Bray asks will where future Britons, live, rely on, or ignore public transport? Tens of thousands of homes lying empty whilst people sleep on the streets, not enough homes of the right type in the right places, unaffordable homes, not enough new homes being built. Britain […]
Six things I learned on a works outing to Hitachi’s Train Building Factory in County Durham
1.We live in a world of mysterious blank big sheds inside which much of the economy happens. So good on Hitachi on being so open to visitors in letting people like us have a look at what goes on in their factory and to see some new trains being born. People love to see what […]
It’s time for transport to make the connections on climate change
Recently it feels like there’s been a shift in the mood on climate change. This is no longer something too big and too distant that we can stuff it in a drawer like a bill we are afraid we can’t pay. Both the ever starker warnings from climate scientists, and the escalation in severe weather, […]
The best transport secretary we’ve had?
Barbara Castle was the first woman to be secretary of state for transport, but was she also the best secretary of state for transport we ever had? Fifty years since her landmark Transport Act received Royal Assent on October 24 (at the time, the largest piece of non-financial legislation since the war), it’s a good […]
Grayling's review can get rail devolution back on track
Last month, the government launched what it called a ‘root and branch’ review of the UK’s railways. And rightly so. On the same day as transport secretary Chris Grayling announced the review, the ORR published the results of its own interim inquiry into the May timetable meltdown, concluding that nobody took charge with a “gap […]
What I found on the conference circuit
In his latest article for Passenger Transport Magazine, Jonathan Bray says in this time of seismic political shifts, the party conferences have become more interesting and new ideas for transport are emerging.