Ahead of next week’s general election, Robert Jack reports on the key transport pledges in the manifestos of Great Britain’s main political parties

 

 
Addressing a conference in London last month, Professor David Begg warned that the UK was lacking a vision for transforming transport in a way that will delivery essential economic, social and environmental outcomes.

Many in the transport sector will agree with this view from the man who was a key advisor to New Labour on transport issues.

Begg lamented that transport policy had gone backwards over the past 20 years, with politicians failing to stand up and make the case for changing travel behaviour.

With the less than a week to go before the election, the parties have published their manifestos and we can look at their proposals for transport policy. Are any of the parties that will compete for our votes next week offering a vision that will prioritise and promote public transport and unlock its game-changing potential?

Labour

Labour is promising change, but typical of the party’s cautious approach to policy, the changes it is proposing for transport do not appear to go much beyond an extension of public ownership.

The party restates its commitment to giving local leaders in England new powers to franchise local bus services and lifting the ban on municipal ownership. 

It also pledges to give mayors the power to create unified and integrated transport systems, allowing for more seamless journeys, and to promote active travel networks. 

But there is no commitment to extending England’s £2 bus fare, which has been in place since January 1, 2023, having first been examined in the dying days of Boris Johnson’s time in Downing Street the previous summer. The Confederation of Passenger Transport described this omission as “disappointing”.
Labour’s manifesto also repeats the party’s commitment to reform the railways and bring them into public ownership.

It will do this as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken through a failure to deliver, without costing taxpayers a penny in compensation.

Great British Railways will meanwhile deliver a unified system. It will work with publicly owned rail operators in Wales and Scotland, and mayors will have a role in designing services in their areas.

Open access operators are “an important part of the rail system and will have an ongoing role”.

There is no mention of HS2, despite pressure on the party to at least commit to extending the line northwards to Crewe

There is no mention of HS2, despite pressure on the party to at least commit to extending the line northwards to Crewe.

Finally, the manifesto promises to develop a long-term strategy for transport, ensuring transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time.  

Conservatives
Since their success in the Uxbridge by-election in July 2023, the Conservatives have abandoned the political consensus on transport policy and dusted off the old’ war on the motorist’ rhetoric. Their manifesto continues that trend, promising to introduce a new Backing Drivers Bill in their first King’s Speech. This Bill would stop road pricing, reverse the expansion of London’s ULEZ and “rule out top-down blanket Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and 20mph zones”.

The Tories also broke the political consensus on HS2 last October when Rishi Sunak told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester that HS2 would no longer be extended to the city. The manifesto says that the £36bn of savings from cutting back HS2 will transform local and regional transport.

Sunak’s government did not show such vigour when it came to implementing long-awaited and widely supported railway reforms, but the manifesto does commit to introducing a Rail Reform Bill in the first King’s Speech. This would create Great British Railways, headquartered in Derby, which would be tasked with ushering in a revitalised private-public partnership and growing the role of the private sector, including supporting the expansion of open access services. 

The manifesto also commits to rolling out mobile pay-as-you-go contactless tickets nationwide over the next Parliament.

The Conservative manifesto does not mention the National Bus Strategy for England, which was only launched three years ago

The only mention of buses is a commitment to extend the £2 bus fare cap in England for the entirety of the next Parliament – funded by savings from the railway reform. Notably, the Conservative manifesto does not mention the National Bus Strategy for England, which was only launched three years ago.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats appear to devote more space to transport in their manifesto than Labour and the Conservatives.

They pledge to urgently establish a new Railway Agency, which sounds similar to Great British Railways: “a public body which would help to join up the industry, from track to train”. Unlike Labour, there is no promise to renationalise the train operating companies. Instead, they promise to be far more proactive in sanctioning and ultimately sacking them if they fall short. They also promise to freeze rail fares and explore the introduction of an annual pass for all railways.

Regarding infrastructure, the Lib Dems would review the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 to see if it can still be delivered in a way that provides value for money, including by encouraging private investment or if an alternative is viable. Further rail infrastructure commitments include establishing a 10-year plan for rail electrification.

The Lib Dem manifesto also pledges to boost bus services by giving local authorities more powers to franchise services and replacing multiple funding streams with one integrated fund for local authorities to expand bus services. They would also maintain the £2 cap on bus fares in England “while fares are reviewed”.

Additionally, they say they would extend half-fares on buses, trams and trains to 18-year-olds and work with operators to introduce a ‘Young Person’s Buscard’, similar to the Young Person’s Railcard.

Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, the Lib Dem plans to curb the climate impact of flying go beyond promoting sustainable aviation fuels

Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, the Lib Dem plans to curb the climate impact of flying go beyond promoting sustainable aviation fuels.
They pledge to reform the taxation of international flights to focus on those who fly the most while reducing costs for ordinary households who take one or two international return flights per year. They would also introduce a new “super tax” on private jet flights and remove the VAT exemptions for private, first-class and business-class flights.

Further interventions in aviation would benefit the railway. For example, airlines would be required to show the carbon emissions for domestic flights compared to the equivalent rail option at booking. Meanwhile, short domestic flights would be banned where a direct rail option taking less than two and a half hours is available for the same journey unless planes are alternative-fuelled.

Green Party

The Green Party is pledging to invest in fairer, greener transport, highlighting the decline in public transport provision.

Green MPs would push to increase annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn by the end of the next Parliament

Green MPs would push to increase annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn by the end of the next Parliament to make public transport reliable, frequent, accessible and affordable, including free bus travel for under-18s.

They also want to invest an additional £19bn over five years to improve public transport, support electrification, and invest in new cycleways and footpaths. Reallocating funding from the road building budget would achieve this.

Like Labour, the Greens would restore public ownership of the railways and give local authorities control over buses.

The Greens say that they would curb aviation in several ways. This includes campaigning for a frequent-flyer levy to reduce the impact of “the 15% of people who take 70% of flights”, and seeking a ban on domestic flights for a journey that would take less than three hours by train.

The Scottish Greens, a separate party, want to subsidise fares for long-distance rail travel from Scotland to England. A new frequent flyer levy would cover the costs.

Reform UK

Reform UK is offering voters a “contract” rather than a manifesto, but this document has little to say about transport.

The party says critical reforms are needed in the first 100 days of a new government. This would include saving £25bn by scrapping the remainder of HS2. Instead, the party proposes accelerating transport infrastructure, focusing on better road and rail links for coastal regions, Wales, the North and the Midlands.

Reform UK is also promising to “stop the war on drivers”. It would legislate to ban ULEZ Clean Air Zones and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

Reform UK is also promising to “stop the war on drivers”. It would legislate to ban ULEZ Clean Air Zones and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Scrapping Net Zero would mean no more bans on petrol and diesel cars.

The contract does not mention bus services.

SNP

The SNP’s manifestos says that its MPs would call for the UK Government to transfer full powers for complete integration of track and train to Scotland – a fully devolved railway, including full ownership and powers over Network Rail Scotland and with powers for permanent public ownership of rail services.

The SNP would also promote a fair and affordable transition to zero-emission transport fuels and a ban on the import and sale of new, non-zero-emission buses by 2025

The SNP would also promote a fair and affordable transition to zero-emission transport fuels and a ban on the import and sale of new, non-zero-emission buses by 2025. In response, the Confederation of Passenger Transport Scotland warned that the latter would disproportionately target SMEs and rural bus operators and the marginal but socially necessary services they provide.

Finally, the SNP manifesto says that “reducing road traffic is key to cutting emissions”, but expresses support for spending on road schemes.

Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru’s manifesto demands that Wales receives the £4bn of transport funding “to which it is entitled under the Barnett Formula for money spent by the UK Government on HS2, which is clearly an England-only project”.

With that additional funding, Plaid says that Wales could revolutionise its railway and transport systems

With that additional funding, Plaid says that Wales could revolutionise its railway and transport systems, including “properly connecting north and south Wales for the first time within Wales”, reopening major railway lines, electrifying the North Wales Main Line, and increasing and improving services west of Swansea.

On both a Welsh and UK level, Plaid believes that the railways should be renationalised. The party also favours the renationalisation of major bus services. 

 
This article appears in the latest issue of Passenger Transport.

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