The end of bus deregulation red in tooth and claw?
Bus wars could be consigned to history The Competition Commission is a black box that sucks masses of data and information in but what’s going to come out of it you don’t know until the lid suddenly opens. Or half opens in the case of the interim report. And the interim report is paradoxically both […]
What future for BSOG?
DfT have been sending out some clear messages recently that although the funding level for BSOG may be fixed – the way that it’s paid, and what it’s paid for – is not. Public money is a precious commodity these days and although the ‘could have been worse’ reductions in BSOG indicate that the bus […]
20 things I learned from our big city cycling conference in Sheffield
After all the hard work that we put into it (along with conference organisers, Waterfront and key partners CTC and Sustrans) I couldn’t have been happier with the way our big city cycling conference in Sheffield went. More than 80 delegates (a good cross section of local transport authority and cycling organisations) turned out for […]
The bus as media cause celebre
The humble bus has recently become a media darling – will it last? In the media’s chart of zeitgeist cuts, buses were in with a bullet this month following CBT’s launch of the Save Our Buses campaign. Indeed bus cuts were number two on the BBC website for a while. In times past buses only made the […]
Total mobility – brave new world
I don’t go to that many general transport conferences these days as I fear I will feel like I’ve heard too much of it too many times before. So it was a pleasure to go to an LSE Cities evening event last week on electric mobility. A get together of an eclectic and international mix […]
Hammond's world of numbers
Philip Hammond is the equivalent of a particularly able finance director, parachuted in to take over what he sees as a failing company – a company perilously close to administration. He’s no romantic like his equally able predecessor, Lord Adonis, but he is just as focussed. You know where you are with Hammond. Mainly because […]
A perfect storm?
A storm brewing for the city regions outside London? It’s not just the indifferent weather that’s been casting shadows over the long summer days. At the back of many minds is uncertainty and concern over just how bad it’s going to be once the spending review kicks in from the Autumn onwards. And for local […]
Confessions of a Network Rail Public Member
I confess I’m one of the 100 plus members of Network Rail. Technically, between us, we own the railway infrastructure. Though we are not personally liable for it! Broadly speaking we have the power to sack the Board of Network Rail – but they can also sack us! When Network Rail was first created I […]
Beneath the city streets – a visit to Down Street tube station/bunker
Prior to the last quarterly Director Generals meeting our hosts Transport for London kindly arranged for a visit to the disused Down Street tube station on the Piccadilly Line in Mayfair. Subsequently it acted as Command Centre bunker for the rail network in WW2 and was also used by Churchill and his war cabinet. Here […]
Putting a TIGER in the tank
The US isn’t famous for its public transport provision especially after the motor industry did its level best to eliminate some of the excellent mass transit systems that American cities used to enjoy. A Los Angeles streetcar – operation ended in 1963[/caption] But despite the tragic destruction of the trolleys and streetcar lines that used […]