On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me… a new secretary of state for transport! Obviously, it isn’t yet Christmas, but it does feel like transport in 2024 has been a real cracker! 

Like many across the sector, I was surprised to see Louise Haigh move on. In her short tenure as transport secretary, she really showed intent to ‘move fast and fix things’. However, politics is brutal, and things change at the drop of a hat. I am sure many will join me in wishing her every success for the future.

Looking ahead, we must rejoice that we have been gifted a new, experienced transport secretary in Heidi Alexander. Her experience as deputy mayor of London for Transport, coupled with her having been an MP for both a constituency in London (Lewisham) and outside of London (South Swindon), will give her a unique perspective on some of the challenges and opportunities that transport faces across the country. I wish her all the best in the role.

In the context of challenges and opportunities, I want to use my last column of the year to celebrate and champion the progress being made in some key policy areas of transport and what we need to do to ensure that transport remains atop the political agenda.

The year of the bus?

Arguably, 2024 has been the year of the bus. We have a commitment to new bus legislation – which I expect to land in Parliament soon, the continuation of England’s national bus fare cap (albeit at a higher rate of £3), and a revenue settlement for the bus up to the start of the next Spending Review period. We should celebrate this outcome, especially given the tight fiscal environment.

We have also seen significant progress on the franchising journey, with Tranche 2 coming online in Greater Manchester earlier this year; agreement to move to franchised bus services in West Yorkshire following the same decision in Liverpool City Region in late 2023; and South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority now running a consultation on a proposed franchising scheme up to mid-January 2025. On top of this, the West Midlands Combined Authority decided to take steps towards franchising in July 2024, with Kim McGuinness, mayor of the North East Combined Authority, aiming to create an ‘Angel Network’ of publicly-controlled buses.

We should not underestimate the policy revolution that has happened across the bus sector over the past 10 years. It was clear across the bus industry – transport authorities and operators alike – that the status quo just wasn’t working for the passenger, and something needed to change. Fast forward to 2024, and there is now a broad consensus that bus franchising does have a place in a mixed market of service provision. As many will know, I am personally agnostic when it comes to the ‘franchising versus enhanced partnerships’ debate. Fundamentally, however, we should be led by what best delivers the outcome – of bus services being a reliable, affordable, and green backbone to an integrated transport network.

Looking at the early evidence from the Bee Network in Greater Manchester, some of these broader outcomes and aspirations are being realised with better performance, improved quality of buses, a notable increase in green buses, and a fare structure that helps facilitate integration, specifically across buses and trams. And if we look towards January 2025, we will see the whole of Greater Manchester become the first new fully franchised region in England since the new legislation came into force in 2017. This is an exciting moment for Greater Manchester and for the bus.

However, we must not rest on our laurels as significant challenges remain. There is no certainty of what will happen to bus funding past March 2026, so continuing to make the case ahead of the upcoming Spending Review is vitally important. Furthermore, we need to have a broader conversation about road space and how we use it for buses and public transport as a whole. If we really want to nudge people to use their cars a little less, especially for shorter journeys, and onto public transport and active travel, we need to rewire and rethink how we use road space – a hugely important commodity for public transport. For example, bus priority and mixed bus and active travel lanes are important tools that could help improve the reliability and efficiency of the bus – it may not be popular, but change never is. The potential of smart traffic signals and the use of artificial intelligence also have the potential to eke out efficiencies for our road network with real-time optimisation.

So, as welcome as legislation is to help improve buses across the country, a sensible debate needs to be had about the role of roads and space in our towns and cities going forward.

Redefining rail

The next policy area that has seen significant change during 2024 is rail, and looking ahead, we will see the biggest change to how rail operates across the country for a generation.

As a self-confessed rail geek, I have had a pretty turbulent relationship with rail over the past year. Broken trains, delayed trains, absent trains… you name it, it has happened. The consequence of this is broken relationships (maybe slightly dramatic but being stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere with a family, no food or drink, and no information would test the mettle of even the most patient of people), delayed meetings, cancelled meetings, and ruined days out. However, in the midst of these ‘distress’ moments, it is worth remembering that rail, on the whole, does work (although the number of delays is still significant). We should also remember that those at the coal face – on platforms, on trains – are in the same boat as the passenger when things go awry. Just like us, they may not immediately know what the issue is and what needs to be done. They will also want to finish their shift and head home to see family or friends. Please show them a little Christmas spirit over the holidays and beyond.

What I do find frustrating about rail, though, is the lack of accountability across the system, especially when things ‘break’. Office of Rail and Road statistics for April 2024 to June 2024 show that infrastructure delays accounted for 58% of all delay minutes compared to 42% for train operating companies.

So, just as we have seen a policy shift across the bus sector, we need to see the same across the rail sector. What I would like, and I believe most people want, is for things to work, and if they don’t, a level of accountability so that they can be fixed and hopefully not happen again. This is why I welcome Great British Railways and the decision to bring track and train into one body – something which has cross-party support and is a key recommendation from the Williams Rail Review.

But it is not enough to just fix how the system works behind the scenes – we also need to look at how we can be more efficient with building and renewing our railways. The Rail and Urban Transport Review, which was published earlier this year, and for which Urban Transport Group was secretariat, was clear that we need to look at how we build rail more efficiently and how we encourage private investment into infrastructure for our railways.

We also need to consider how rail can achieve its full potential in our towns and city regions as part of an integrated transport network. There are already great examples of devolution in rail – most notably Merseyrail in Liverpool City Region and the Overground in London. As we look to the Rail Reform Bill, we must ensure that where needed, the barriers to rail being a fundamental part of integrated local transport networks are removed and that the opportunities to maximise new homes in and around rail stations can be actioned by our city regions.

So, as we look towards 2025 and beyond, we have a huge opportunity to redefine how the railways operate nationally, and crucially locally, so that we can help see in a renaissance in rail for future generations.

Joining-up thinking

My final look back (and forward) is regarding the newly announced Integrated National Transport Strategy. Now, some may ask why we need a strategy when for many people, transport is ‘local’ by its very nature. That is a fair challenge, but ultimately, I believe it is important that we have a broader framework for how transport will support economic growth and social outcomes, and what we can coalesce around to deliver these.

I commend the excellent work that the newly assembled team in the Department for Transport have done to date on the transport strategy, and I am excited at the opportunity a strategy will bring for the sector. Not only will the strategy be developed bottom-up, learning from some of the excellent work across our city regions, towns, and rural counties, but it will also seek to look at how we appraise transport, ensuring that we are working towards the best outcomes for the passenger.

Looking ahead, however, I firmly believe the role of freight and how we move freight across both our local areas and nationally is important, and I would hope that this becomes part of the conversation when developing the new strategy.

  So, as I look towards 2025, I am optimistic about the path we are on and what opportunities lie ahead. I have only covered three key areas here; there is more to say on devolution, on light rail, and also on the role of active travel and micromobility. So, expect these topics to be covered in future columns, but until then, have a great festive break.

Jason Prince is Director at the Urban Transport Group

This piece first appeared in Passenger Transport Magazine.