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"Those kinds of decisions should absolutely be made at a local level by communities and not dictated to or stoked up by the centre." Alongside a welcome move away from "culture wars", to my mind this is exactly what grown up government should look like for #transportplanners. Now, just need more long term certainty and devolution of funding and we'll be flying. #transportplanning

The UK Parliament’s Transport Select Committee has launched a new enquiry: Buses Connecting Communities It would be great to see lots of national and international research evidence submitted to support the Committee’s work! Buses are the most widely used form of public transport. However, in many parts of the country, both service provision and passenger numbers are in decline. The Transport Committee will examine the role of bus services in connecting rural communities with nearby towns and suburban areas. The inquiry will evaluate the effectiveness of recent Government policy in tackling the decline in bus services. It will explore the social and economic consequences of poor connectivity and consider whether innovations in alternative service models could provide solutions. The Committee will also scrutinise how the Government’s proposed bus reforms address the particular challenges faced by rural areas and local authorities outside of major cities. Please read the call for evidence for more detail about this inquiry. Deadline for written evidence, 17 January 2025. More info here: https://lnkd.in/dZuf87D7

Levelling Up has been scrapped.   What we do know is that doesn’t mean the end of Government's commitments to improve the rail industry - it is only the slogan that is being erased. Public transport is vital for connecting communities and enabling accessibility to a diverse range of work places.   The Kings Speech laid out the road map for the Government's ambitions to bring public transport into public control. With public transport still struggling to return to pre-pandemic usage levels, the key aspirations put a focus on passengers, increasing services and reducing costs, for the consumer and public purse. Plans also indicate a desire for growing networks, particularly the development of better rail interconnectivity in the North.    Personally, I am a big fan of the £2 cap on bus fares which has made public transport an attractive option and was supported by the previous Governments investment into affordable travel.   We know from the King's Speech that the way forward will be paved by the following Bill's:   🚇 Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill - The management of passenger services are currently contracted to Train Operating Companies under National Rail Contracts, this Bill will look to transfer responsibility of these services to a public-sector operator as the existing contracts expire. This is seen as the first step to delivering a broader programme of reform.   🚍 Better Buses Bill - Citing the success of the Greater Manchester's Bee Network as case study, the Government will use this Bill to deliver their commitment to reform the bus system by delivering new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services and lift the restriction on the creation of new publicly owned bus operators.   🚆 Railways Bill - This Bill will establish the much anticipated Great British Railways for the management of the rail network and delivery of passenger services. The Bill will also be used to make further legislative changes to comprehensively reform the rail sector – "bringing track and train back together and planning services on a whole-system basis, to better deliver for passengers and freight customers, and to unlock growth".   🚄 High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill - The Government will repurpose this Bill to provide powers to construct and operate rail projects which improve east to west connectivity across the north of England - something I am particularly excited to see come into fruition.   This will definitely be a sector to keep an eye on.   Pictured: Sign in Blackburn Train Station earlier this year - if you have been to Blackburn Train Station/live here you will understand the eye roll that accompanied this picture. 

The National Road Carriers Association (Inc) is advocating for the formal inclusion of the road freight sector when the newly announced Auckland Regional Transport Committee (ARTC) is established. The call follows the announcement by Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown about significant reforms to Auckland Transport which strip the organisation of its statutory independence. The reforms mean key transport decisions will be made by elected council members along with the formation of the ARTC to oversee a 30-year Integrated Transport Plan for the city. NRC policy and advocacy general manager James Smith says the road freight industry welcomes the reforms. “NRC is pleased to see action to answer the frustrations many have with Auckland Transport. “We look forward to engaging constructively to ensure the freight sector can efficiently support the economic growth of Auckland.” He says the national road freight body is putting forward its view that it should be included in any future ARTC which will consider plans for the city’s needs across roads, rail, public transport, and freight. https://lnkd.in/g9HRTFsZ

A new train service between Stirling and London will begin next summer after rail regulators gave it the green light. The return service will run four times a day from June 2025 to London Euston. The trains will call at Milton Keynes Central, Nuneaton, Crewe, Preston, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Whifflet, Greenfaulds and Larbert. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said it has approved an application by Grand Union Trains to operate the service. The ORR said the plan would increase choice for passengers and significantly increase direct journey options between London and both central and southern Scotland. The regulator's director of strategy, policy and reform Stephanie Tobyn said: "By providing more trains serving new destinations, open access operators offer passengers more choice in the origin and price of their journey, leading to better outcomes for rail users." Grand Union Trains will run on an open access basis, meaning it will receive no taxpayer-funded subsidies and take on all revenue risk. It will be the first open access operator on the West Coast Main Line. Read more ➡️ https://buff.ly/4c7w1zj The Scottish Chambers of Commerce Network is here to support your business - reach out to share your views, concerns and opportunities. #SCCnews #businesssupport #businessnetwork #businessvoice #businessleader Sign up for the Scottish Chambers of Commerce enewsletter at https://buff.ly/3CpsQnu

Yesterday, Dan Bewley and Rob Thirlwell joined Kim McGuinness as she launched her plans for an integrated transport system were she to be elected Mayor of the North East on May 2nd.   Kim was supported by Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Louise Haigh MP who spoke of her strong relationship with Kim and the desperate need for reform and increased funding for transport systems in areas like the North East. Leader of Gateshead Council, Martin Gannon, outlined the issues that people in the area are facing when it comes to public transport, outlining the fall in bus usage by 39% last year and the complete lack of government communication when it came to highway changes in Gateshead.   Kim spoke of her plans to create a new fleet of publicly owned buses which she hoped would be named the ‘Angel fleet’ and be the greenest network in the entire UK. She noted the importance of improving the bus system in the area to increase opportunity for those in more remote areas. She also outlined her plans to support the extension of the Metro system into Washington and further to the West of Newcastle.    Kim also made it clear that those in rural areas of the North East are always going to be somewhat reliant on cars and that under her leadership, people would have access to more EV charging points so that people can travel across the North East as sustainably as possible.   As stated by Martin, a Labour Mayor, working hand in glove with a Labour government will bring positive change to the North East in all sorts of areas, especially transport! If you would like to know what a prospective Labour Government is going to mean for you or your organisation in North East or elsewhere, get in touch: tomorrow@lowickgroup.com #transport #politics #northeast #trains #planes #automobiles

If nothing else it'll be a great case study in the price elasticity of demand for transport ridership in Australia. Whilst this does nothing to change network frequency, coverage and safety of the system, equally, I think few people on the streets will complain about essentially free public transport. International experience would suggest this doesn't result in the paradigm mode shift that frequency, quality and safety of service improvements provide, but will be interesting to see to what extent, and at what times of day, there is an uptick in patronage. #Brisbane #publictransport #planning #fares #Engineering ##politics

This article reinforces transport's powerful role in place-making. Within my team, and through the work that we do, we can see this on a much more local level - within the transport hubs and stations themselves. When looking at revenue generation, we recognise a station's 'place' and how it fits with customers, communities, and transport links. How does it work now? How could it work in the future? How can we build upon the offering, help to generate sustainable revenue, and increase the social value of our stations and interchanges for both local and wider regional communities.

The majority of businesses, people, in town welcome any initiative that will make the city more welcoming for people. They believe that this plan is a step in the right direction: we need less cars - it will lead to more space for people and a better functioning public transport. IBEC and the Minister have been heavily lobbied by a minority and on that basis are asking for the democratic process to be stopped. Why? At what cost? How many more children living in the city center will develop respiratory issues because of further delays? How many more small businesses will go bust because people decide to stay away from a city center that values cars over them? Transitions are hard, someone needs to make the first step without knowing exactly where it's going to land. It can seem risky. But waiting until inaction becomes too painful to bear will not lead to good decisions: we have now the chance, using our chosen democratic process however flawed, to take a step in a new direction with some agency and thought.

How did the Tories really do on transport? 🚆🛣️ Last weekend marked 100 days of the Labour Government. We're going to have plenty of time to consider how they're doing. Accountability matters, so before 14 years of Tory Government fade into memory, let's see how they did. That's been the focus of a three-part series on my blog, which you can access via my website (link in bio) but here's the essence: 🚅 High-Speed Rail - They promised a national high-speed network including not only Leeds and Manchester but also South Wales and Newcastle. Seriously - they did! We ended up with the Aston to Acton shuttle. 🚌 Buses and local transport - They aimed to make regional services as good as London's, but we saw bus networks shrink, despite some welcome steps like the £2 fare cap. 🚙 Roads and electric vehicles - There were fulfilled promises here, including drugalyser tech but promises to fill potholes were only needed due to local authority austerity cuts. ✈️ Aviation - Promises not to expand Heathrow? Kept. But cuts to domestic air passenger duty fly in the face of our carbon commitments and cut revenues at a time when other taxes were rising. 🛤️ Rail reform - This was a major failure. Instead of simplifying the system, they made it even more complex and left it worse than they found it. A wasted decade of indecision and contradictory policy. The Tories’ transport legacy is best summed up by HS2—a monumental spend with nothing transformational to show for it. Thatcher would have scrapped it. Brown would have built it. Only this particular generation of Tories could have spent £100bn on so little. Overall, the last 14 years was remarkable for how little Tory stuff got done. They managed to shrink useful services but also increased state control. You'd expect the Tories to eliminate waste or drive private sector innovation but we saw none of it. In the end, they weren't just bad at delivering on their promises, they were bad at being Tories. For more detail including a line-by-line assessment of the manifestos, see the blog. What are your thoughts on their transport record?