The new government’s enthusiasm for public transport is encouraging – but ambitious modal shift targets are needed
The transport sector is furthest off track to meet the UK’s carbon targets. New transport secretary Louise Haigh has moved quickly on public transport-friendly legislation – but will she succeed in persuading people out of cars?
With Parliament soon to return from summer recess, transport campaigners are hoping to see Haigh act on her promise to “move fast and fix things” on transport.
The government announced four significant bills on public transport in the King’s Speech: three focused on rail and one on buses. Better public transport will give communities greener, less polluting, less congested transport options, so it’s great to see this is a priority for the new administration.
The first rail bill will face a committee of the whole House of Commons on September 3, meaning all MPs can debate and vote on its contents. It allows for existing rail contracts to be gradually integrated into a new public body, Great British Railways, as they expire over the coming years. This is a crucial step toward addressing the fragmentation that has plagued Britain’s rail network.
The second rail bill will actually establish Great British Railways. The new public body will gain responsibility for services, infrastructure, and simplify ticketing for travellers. Behind the scenes, it will absorb Network Rail. This move is intended to streamline management and improve coordination across the rail network, which has long suffered from disjointed governance. There are also plans to set a statutory duty to promote rail freight, which is far more environmentally friendly than transporting goods by road.
The third rail bill focuses on rail connections in the North of England and is carried over from the previous parliament. This bill is significant because it allows the goverment to continue to exercise powers over the land along the planned HS2 route north of Birmingham, including compulsory purchase.
This could be used to develop parts of Northern Powerhouse Rail in the future. Northern metro mayors say that “poor and unaffordable” public transport systems are a key priority after the election, and fixing them is certainly important for addressing social exclusion and increasing prosperity in the North. At Green Alliance, we’ll be looking at how we can improve rail to make it a more attractive transport option in some upcoming work later this year.
The government is taking some especially encouraging steps on buses. A new Better Buses Bill will empower local areas to bring buses into public ownership. This will grant all local areas the power to franchise buses: giving leaders control over routes and fares but working with operators to deliver the service. The government also plans to give local areas the option of creating their own municipal bus operators.
At Green Alliance, we also want to see the promised improvements to the funding system for buses help to restore routes, which have been roughly halved outside London since 2008. We’re calling for further action to keep bus fares affordable, too. With the current £2 fare cap set to expire at the end of the year, the government urgently needs to take steps to keep buses affordable for all, but in particular for the lowest income groups which are twice as likely to not have access to a car. We would like to see it lower the cap to £1 for the course of this Parliament. This would help to cut up to 15 billion car miles and increase bus patronage by 70%.
The government’s willingness to prioritise fixing public transport is exciting for those who care about connecting communities and giving them greener transport options
The government’s willingness to prioritise fixing public transport is exciting for those who care about connecting communities and giving them greener transport options. The previous administration flirted with trying to create political dividing lines on transport in the wake of the debate around the Ultra Low Emission Zone extension in London. This strategy didn’t succeed in getting public support. The fact is that improvements to public transport benefit everyone – many people who use public transport also use a car, and more buses mean less congestion. And Labour is not neglecting drivers either, announcing that it plans to repair and maintain the existing road network, with a notable sum for potholes.
But the truth is, we need to take fewer journeys by car if we want to meet our legally binding climate targets. We are still eager to see Labour set ambitious modal shift targets, as promised in its rail plan, to match the scale of the challenge the transport sector has in reducing its emissions, set out in stark terms in our Green Alliance Policy Tracker.
A future with more public transport options and fewer car journeys looks bright. It offers better health, less social exclusion, cleaner air and less congestion, and better, greener choices for getting from A to B. So we’re encouraged by the new government’s enthusiasm for public transport, and look forward to seeing more rapid action to make it work for communities.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rosie Allen joined Green Alliance as a policy adviser in September 2022. Prior to this, she worked as a civil servant at Ofgem and the Department of Health.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
DON’T MISS OUT – GET YOUR COPY! – click here to subscribe!
The post A promising start for public transport first appeared on Passenger Transport.