Stephen Joseph, CEO of the Campaign for Better Transport, has released a strongly-worded statement outlining the organisation’s four key policy objectives.
Published on CityMetric.com, Stephen wrote: “In an election dominated by other issues, transport has struggled to get noticed, but the next government will face a number of transport challenges which can’t be ducked or ignored.
“The first is air pollution: how to clean up air in cities without annoying motorists and their media friends. The risk is that the next government will shy away from tackling polluting diesel cars and trucks or promoting modal shift, and instead will go for soft targets like buses.
“Second, there is the crisis in local transport, where successive spending cuts have led to a huge backlog in maintenance in local roads, cuts in local bus services, limited and sporadic investment in sustainable transport and a loss of experienced council staff. This means that proper planning of transport and development is giving way to chaotic car-based sprawl where developers get anything they want and local roads jam up.”
Stephen outlined four key policies:
• Fix it first – a shift of funding away from Highways England and trunk roads to local transport, including maintenance of local roads (and pavements). This can also fund bus priority;
• Stop the bus cuts – Stephen said that while there is now a Bus Services Act, proper funding is needed for buses and local public transport generally. He called for a national strategy for buses, including long term and sustained Government funding for greening the bus fleet, to deliver modern bus services, clean up air pollution and stimulate low carbon industries;
• Expand the railways – invest in rail upgrades, better stations, electrification and the Strategic Freight Network; and
• Make public transport affordable and attractive – country-wide smart ticketing, protect the existing bus pass and create a national concessionary travel scheme for young people.
Stephen added: “We’ll also want to see the next government continue to limit rail fare increases to inflation, introduce season tickets for
part-time workers, and simplify the structure and range of fares.”
