Will LRT ever have traction in the UK?
The slow expansion of light rail in the UK does not seem to fit well with the need to address the challenge of climate crisis Midland Metro The UN Climate Action Summit in New York City at the end of September highlighted the need for urgent and comprehensive activity to address the...
What is the scope for boosting bus use?
Our analysis of the ‘Intrinsic Bus Potential’ of local authority areas in England shows why we need a new deal for the bus “How much have we as an industry put into research and development in the last five years? We’re getting worse, not better, and we have to change that.” These...
Is this the sad end of a 73-year-old story?
A short time now exists for someone to lift Wrightbus out of administration, saving a valued supplier and hundreds of jobs The loss is being most firmly felt in Ballymena, where thousands of jobs have already gone At the time of going to press old established bus manufacturer Wrightbus was on the brink of...
It’s time we talked about modal shift
Modal shift to a revitalised public transport system is the way to deliver our social, economic and environmental objectives Road traffic levels increased by 29% between 1990 and 2018 while over the last five years the number of bus journeys taken has plummeted by more than 300 million Modal shift is the concept...
‘New Rail’ must listen to passengers
It is vital that the post-Williams railway is responsive to the ultimate customer – the people who travel by trains for work or leisure ‘New Rail’ must listen and respond to passengers “Maybe there should not be so many fingers in the pie and maybe a specific person, body, group, that if there...
Getting beyond the MaaS hysteria
City regions will have a key role to play in determining whether Mobility as a Service succeeds and makes a positive contribution A visualisation of Mobility as a Service. Source: Urban Transport Group ‘MaaS Movement: Issues and options on Mobility as a Service for city region transport authorities’ I don’t know about...
Sweden’s rail market – a model for the UK?
Having learned lessons from other markets about deregulation of rail services, Sweden offers an interesting model back to the world Transdev’s Snälltåget The railway industry across Europe, and in many other places around the world, is slowly, but steadily moving from a model of state backed monopolies of infrastructure and services to a...
How Merseyrail dared to be different
Stability and local control has provided the basis for this unique city region railway operation to push on and create a success story All Merseyrail stations are now being prepared for the biggest change to the network in years – new rolling stock “Liverpool, surreal. Liverpool, sardonic. Liverpool battered dignity. Liverpool, flotsam of...
How can we turn talk about buses into action?
Decision makers are waking up to the important role that buses can play. We must make the most of this window of opportunity Everyone is talking about buses. Could it be that we have a window of opportunity to do something transformative for our most essential mode of public transport? Prime minister...
Boris Johnson has tricky transport to-do list
Transport was put on ice during Theresa May’s tenure, but there are big decisions to make that won’t be easy for the new prime minister So Boris Johnson is our new prime minister. I can hardly believe I am writing that, and my fingers are definitely meeting resistance from the keyboard. Are...
We know the pledges – but what’s the plan?
In signing up to climate change pledges politicians are also signing up to a seismic public policy shift – especially for the way we travel Change is possible: The Netherlands was heading down our car dependent route until they made a big shift to the bike in the 1970s (Photo: Elisabeth Aardema /...
The price is right, the time is right