Issue 326 of Passenger Transport is published on November 29. Contents include: LEAD STORY Vision for integrated transport is unveiled Transport secretary launches new strategy aimed at joining up England’s transport networks and invites others to contribute to her vision NEWS More will share latest round of...
Transport secretary launches new strategy aimed at joining up England’s transport networks and invites others to contribute to her vision Haigh cited Greater Manchester’s Bee Network as a domestic integrated transport leader On the day before she resigned as transport secretary, Louise Haigh set out her vision for...
New statistics reveal strong passenger growth, but there is some way to go before the bus industry surpasses patronage recorded before the pandemic BY Andrew Garnett New statistics from the Department for Transport reveal that the number of local bus passenger journeys in Great Britain reached 4.04 billion in...
Council-owned operator won coveted prize at ceremony in London this week, but Stagecoach topped the ‘medal table’ with 12 winners in total Winners on stage at the 2024 UK Bus Awards Nottingham City Transport was named UK Bus Operator at this week’s UK Bus Awards in London. The...
Renationalisation of the TOCs is at the heart of the government’s strategy for rail – but what about the far more lucrative ROSCOs? One mystery of the new Labour government’s rail policy is why it seems so uninterested in rolling stock issues. Public control has been the driving...
Having made a success of franchising in Jersey, Samuel Ribeiro and his Tower Transit colleagues are seeking further opportunities LibertyBus – a franchising success story When I look back on my 2024 by some distance the highlight was my first ever trip to the Channel Islands, which...
A fixation on whether public services should be privatised or nationalised misses the larger, more impactful considerations It has happened! The failed delivery model whereby a public sector authority specifies the services it wants and then contracts private firms to deliver them is over! Hooray for rail renationalisation....
John Prescott, who died last week, took transport policy in a revolutionary direction during New Labour’s first term in office John Prescott pictured at the wheel of a bus outside the first Bus Summit in November 1999 (PA Images / Alamy Stock) When the editor of this...
Long-serving rail boss Dominic Booth warns against overloading ‘woeful’ DOHL and calls for a phased approach to taking franchises in-house Dominic Booth: ‘quick fixes are rarely sustainable’ The government has been urged to take a phased approach to rail nationalisation rather than taking franchises back in-house at the earliest opportunity. That is the...
Bus franchising emerged as a key theme amongst speakers and suppliers as zero-emission electric buses dominated the biennal Birmingham show Delegates poured into the Birmingham NEC for Euro bus Expo this week Euro Bus Expo returned to Birmingham’s NEC for the first time in two years following the cancellation of Coach & Bus...
We spoke to Matt Carney, CEO of Go-Ahead Bus, about partnering with CitySwift to boost bus reliability and user experience in the UK and Ireland A bus driver at Go North West Last month, transport group Go-Ahead Group and technology firm CitySwift announced a ground-breaking UK and Ireland-wide partnership. In the wake of...
Dominic Booth is right to warn that taking too many franchises in-house too quickly won’t help passengers and could backfire Dominic Booth, CEO of Transport UK After generally a ‘free pass’ from significant criticism since presiding in the public sector, train company Northern recently received a stinging rebuke from Greater Manchester mayor...
We now know the direction of travel that the new government wishes to take but it’s not yet clear how we are going to get there Chancellor Rachel Reeves and transport secretary Louise Haigh during a visit to Greater Manchester this month It’s too early to predict in detail how the new...
Women in Bus and Coach and Transport for London initiative has visited eight garages while National Express West Midlands launches seating trial With a shortage of bus drivers in the industry, a review into the bus cab design is vital The Women in Bus and Coach and Transport for London Inclusive Bus Cab...
Chancellor faced criticism for raising England’s bus fare cap from £2 to £3 and increasing rail fares by 4.6% while retaining the 5p fuel duty cut Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her first budget this week Rachel Reeves delivered her first budget this week with some positive news for public transport, including investments in...
Bus industry entrepreneur Bill Hiron has sold Eastern Transport Holdings, the parent of bus operators Stephensons and NIBS, to an employee trust Bill Hiron: ‘the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea’ Eastern Transport Holdings, the parent company of bus operators Stephensons of Essex and NIBS Buses, has been...
We must now start to look towards the spending review in Spring and make a compelling case for investment in public transport We rely on good bus, rail and tram services and walking and cycling infrastructure I have just returned from a two-week break spent travelling through rural Western America in a...
Our youth-focussed world overlooks the talent and experience of older workers, but right now we need them more than ever before Not long before Covid kicked off, I spent some time with a very amiable pension advisor who kindly pulled together several pensions I have during my unremarkable but transient career. I’ll be...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her first budget. There was some good news for public transport but disappointment too Chancellor Rachel Reeves on budget day So there we have it, Rachel Reeves’s first budget, and altogether rather less gloomy than what had been heavily signalled almost since the day Labour took office...
Fiona Guthrie of RATP Dev Transit London was named ‘Best Project Manager’ at the pan-European Talent in Mobility Awards last month for her work on the Garage Life Programme. She explains how the project has helped new drivers feel quickly at home and boosted retention rates New drivers who completed the GLP programme had...
‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint’