Transport needs clarity and certainty

 

Some of the real positives from the government’s Network North announcements have got lost in the malaise. Details are required

 
Greater Manchester’s Bee Network is an example of what can be achieved

 
I am writing this on what feels like the first proper day of Autumn and just over 100 days from taking up the role as director of the Urban Transport Group. Why is 100 days important? Because that is the timeline I set myself to refresh this brilliant organisation to meet the challenges (and opportunities) that public transport faces over the next few months and years.

Now, it would be wrong to use this column to say how fantastic we are as an organisation. We are only as good as the work we deliver and the strength and depth of our relationships in the sector. But I do believe that the team – in this short space of time I have been with UTG – have worked incredibly hard to deliver some great policy interventions, with a highlight being our recently published A Smoother Ride – Reviewing the Bus Services Act 2017 to empower local areas in collaboration with the Local Government Association.

While the paper may not have got the column inches (being about the nitty-gritty of bus legislation), it did get the recognition it deserved across the public transport sector – and rightly so! For me, it was vital that the paper challenged the orthodoxy of a one size fits all approach to public transport. Given that we have plurality of devolution across our nation, can we be confident that what works in one place will also work in another? Put simply – no.

What is important is that there is a framework provided by national government for devolution to operate and thrive

What is important is that there is a framework provided by national government for devolution to operate and thrive, and I know that many in the Department for Transport worked extremely hard to provide a sound piece of legislation in the Bus Services Act 2017 that allowed for devolution to be, in my own words, ‘scaled-up’. This is why, now that the devolution genie has been fully released from the lamp, the legislation needs to be updated to reflect the progress of devolution across the country, starting with franchising to be open to all areas (without the need for secretary of state approval) and the ban on local authorities setting up municipal bus companies being lifted.

The point however, about the framework provided by national government, is also relevant to the newly launched Network North.

When I started the job just over three months ago, I expected from the Conservative Party, just as night follows day, a refreshed narrative on net zero and a widening of the policies to support motorists in the run up to a general election. And in the same vein, I also expect we will hear more from the Labour Party about greater public control over key tenants in our economy and the growth potential of the green industries.

However, what I hadn’t expected was to find myself (as someone who lives in Manchester) living in a newly defined geographical north that spans the breadth of the country from Stranraer in Scotland to Plymouth in the South and the Port of Felixstowe in the East. This was quite a revelation – as was the prospect of being able to get a Metrolink tram to Manchester Airport…! However, given that a third of all the money announced in Network North will go to road projects, this surely means that at the very least, if I choose to drive to any of these places, the roads will be top notch and smooth as silk.

 

Light-heartedness aside, it is fair to say that across the transport sector and beyond, there is some bemusement at how we have got here and more worrying, where we are going. What makes this more bewildering, and I am sure this point is not lost on government, is that some of the real positives from Network North have got lost in the malaise.

One of the announcements we should applaud is the uplift to devolved transport settlements for urban regions outside of London. This is welcome and confirms the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) as a mechanism for all partners to build upon to help support transport delivery in devolved areas. By the way, it is worth noting that the government also needs to reach agreement with our friends in the capital on funding post-March 2024!

Network North is scant on detail about revenue funding and long-term support for the most used form of public transport – the bus

However, Network North is scant on detail about revenue funding and long-term support for the most used form of public transport – the bus. Now it would be wrong not to acknowledge the extension to the £2 fare cap up to the end of 2024 – an end date that is prime for a manifesto pledge to extend beyond the election should that event happen around a year from now. But long-term support for the broader bus sector is limited, which is frustrating given how many people depend on buses each day. A new settlement for buses needs to be a priority for any future government. To avoid this would be to condemn the local economies of towns and cities across the country to terminal decline.

More broadly however, and probably the biggest weakness in Network North, is the lack of an overall strategy for connectivity to support our regions, something that has been picked up in the recent five-year assessment by the National Infrastructure Commission. Devolved areas are recognised as drivers for growth to support our national economy, and they can only develop, improve and become more productive if the national transport infrastructure is fit for purpose, and gets built.

We need to acknowledge that great strides have been made in recent years to harness the potential of devolution – with city regions now starting to deliver on their promise of improved connectivity, working in partnership with government and officials to unlock the true potential in our economic heartlands. You only need to look at what is being delivered in Greater Manchester through the Bee Network as an example of what can be achieved.

As we hurtle towards the next general election, it is important that any future government builds on work that is already underway locally and provides a national transport strategy and framework that has clarity and certainty at its heart

But as we hurtle towards the next general election, it is important that any future government builds on work that is already underway locally and provides a national transport strategy and framework that has clarity and certainty at its heart.

Clarity provides the ability to plan, certainty provides the confidence to invest. As remarked earlier in this piece, national government is there to provide the framework for devolution to thrive.

So, as I plan with the team how we will invest our time over the next 100 days, I and many others in the transport sector will be looking for that clarity and certainty – to provide them is not an ask of government, it is a must and is a minimum requirement of being in government.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jason Prince became director of the Urban Transport Group, the UK’s network of city region transport authorities, in July 2023. He was previously head of public affairs for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, a position he held for over three years, and prior to that, he worked for Transport for Greater Manchester

 
This article appears in the latest issue of Passenger Transport.

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The post Transport needs clarity and certainty first appeared on Passenger Transport.

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