Northern Ireland is getting ahead
Of the four main constituent parts of the UK, only one of them saw bus use grow last year. It is the same one on track to having a smart and fully unified ticketing system across all forms of public transport, and which has also seen the use of its rail network double in 10 […]
Health in All Policies – the transport connection
A few quick reflections on the thought provoking Health in All Policies conference we were a sponsor of on Wednesday and which our AD Rebecca Fuller spoke at (as part of our long term aim of getting better coordination across the health and transport sectors) – shamefully, health inequalities in this country are getting worse – all the […]
What do we really feel about the bus?
Most of the discourse on buses treats people as if they know what they are doing. It assumes that travellers are constantly making fully conscious rational economic trade-offs between cost and journey times and then making the logical choice as a result. And of course there is part of the brain that does this. This […]
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, […]