I tried to stop a rail privatisation
Since the Williams-Shapps rail plan was published it seems like everybody has been telling their story of rail privatisation. So I’m going to tell mine. I was the Coordinator of the Save our Railways campaign that, in the nineties, tried to stop privatisation. We came close too. Though, as it has turned out, it was […]
What might the Williams-Shapps plan mean for urban public transport?
Here’s a first take: There are clear tensions between the urgent need to de-clutter and de-layer the railway landscape; the influence of the wider ‘save the union’ project; and the facts on the ground around existing devolution of urban and regional rail (and its clear benefits). One of those devo benefits being the pioneering of […]
Fighting smart to get passengers back on public transport
In some ways, getting the funding to keep public transport going during the pandemic was the easy bit. During the pandemic it was important for Government to keep the public transport show on the road (and the companies that provide it) to prevent a wider sense of societal and economic breakdown. As a result, the […]
The national bus strategy
1. If deregulation is dead then what is this that is replacing it? For years we have been arguing that passengers in our areas don’t want on-street competition and private companies determining the key public service that they rely on. Instead they want single, integrated bus networks as part of wider single, integrated public transport […]
Budget 2021: Five key takeaways for urban transport
1. The one year 2020 Spending Review, and the multi-year 2021 Spending Review, are more significant for urban transport than the Budget was likely to be – and indeed, proved to be. Also, between now and the 2021 Spending Review, we will have the bus strategy, and, if the road map to COVID-19 recovery works […]
Why we need a new deal on urban transport – both during the pandemic and beyond
The roadmap of the release from COVID-19 restrictions was as cautious as was predicted for the early stages but perhaps more ambitious than was expected on the end game – with June 21st potentially seeing the end of all restrictions on journey purpose and on social distancing. It’s good to now have the playbook for […]
The world turned upside down?
A progressive way to turn the world upside down would be to do as the Welsh Government has done with the M4 road scheme in South Wales – and look at how the money could be better spent on giving the sub-region a public transport network second to none There’s a risk that the short […]
Spending Review 2020 – the fine print on urban transport
The headlines… The focus remains on capital investment Overall (non-COVID19) spending projections for the next five years are below the Chancellor’s pre-pandemic plans Non-COVID spending is well below pre-austerity levels for not protected Departments including transport and local government Things will probably get worse for non-protected departments (including Transport and MHCLG) Here’s some Resolution Foundation […]
Are we moving to nano management?
In the summer there were high hopes that COVID-19 would be a short war in which the worst would soon be over and victory was in sight. Having won the war, we could then go onto win the peace by making some of the wartime measures (like a big shift to cycling) part of the […]
New normal?
September has brought to an abrupt end the dreams of the summer of a linear recovery from COVID-19, where empty office blocks would spring back into strip lit life and zoned out commuters would again be grazing the shelves of Prets. However, once more the virus has shown that it is not prepared to enter […]