As 2023 gets underway, we look ahead at the work needed to help deliver a stronger and more sustainable North.
Since its establishment as the first statutory sub-national transport body in 2018, Transport for the North (TfN) has grown in stature as a regional centre of excellence for strategic transport planning. It has become a trusted source of information, an award-winning national thought leader, one that has developed cutting-edge analytical tools that enable the TfN Board and its partners to make the case for the North.
Our Strategic Transport Plan (STP) – which is vision-led, evidence-based – sets out the North’s priorities for ensuring our transport system enables the ambition of our people and businesses to be realised.
Our work as Transport for the North serves to reinforce the message that investment in our transport system not only delivers for the North, but indeed for the rest of the UK: that investment in unleashing our economic potential is fundamental to realising the green economic revolution. Investing to connect people and places with access to services and opportunities also addresses social inequalities throughout our communities.
By continuing to act as ‘one voice’ for the North, our 20 Local Transport Authorities and 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships, can offer an ambitious vision, one that is grounded in our understanding of what our region needs and deserves.
As we look forward to 2023, TfN remains resolute in making the case for investment in the North’s transport system and steadfast in the need for pace, if we are to deliver economic growth that is sustainable and inclusive for the longer term.
In 2022 we launched our cutting-edge regional Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI) Framework. The framework provides a route map that TfN’s partners can use to deliver an efficient, attractive and inclusive EV charging network. It also identifies the importance of TfN working with other areas of public sector policy given the significant requirements placed on the electricity grid and energy networks arising from the electrification of road vehicles.
Over the next 12 months, TfN will work with the Department for Transport, OZEV and our partners to shape the delivery of an EV-charging infrastructure network that enables the electrification of the road fleet as part of our work on decarbonisation.
This regional evidence base will support our ambitions and objectives in the EV charging space, as well as help accelerate investment in an EV charge point network that meets the diverse needs of the North.
The recently published report by the Geospatial Commission about the different layers of data that can be used to effectively deliver EV charging presents clear actions which we will look to support through further advancement of our work and collaboration across all sectors involved.
We also hope to further expand on the EVCI project by rolling out the model to other regions and provide active support to other STB’s and partners.
Delivering a step-change in rail connectivity across the North remains at the heart of TfN’s Strategic Transport Plan and we will continue to work closely with government and the rail sector in making the case for investment to grow the railway offer.
In the short-term the focus will be on supporting efforts to restore confidence in our rail services. Lessons must be learnt from last year and we’ll continue to push the rail industry to improve operational performance. We remain committed to putting rail users – both passengers and freight – at the heart of rail reform and will continue to make the case for better services and a more reliable railway.
TfN’s experience – through the Rail North Committee and Rail North Partnership – provides invaluable insight as to how devolution can empower those in the rail sector with the flexibility required to respond to changing markets, whilst working within the available funding. We believe that investing in our rail network will also lead to transformational economic returns.
An enhanced rail network will allow for more efficient movement of our goods and our people – but also crucially of our talent and our ideas. At a time when the return to rail in the North continues to outperform the rest of the country, we must rediscover the growth ambition that underpinned the original Northern and TransPennine Express (TPE) franchises.
We believe the North’s experience provides the perfect foundation on which to move forward with rail reform without the need to wait for prospective legislation associated with Great British Railways. We want to develop a model of ‘double devolution’ that will result in greater local accountability and a simplified approach to fares and ticketing. And we want to ensure that we are considering both revenues and costs when planning for future rail services.
We believe the North offers the opportunity to pilot new ways of working that will achieve greater alignment across the rail sector and improve the offering to all users.
In a short period of time, TfN has rapidly assembled an industry leading evidence base, produced a statutory transport plan for the North and identified clear investment priorities for transforming connectivity and decarbonising our transport network.
The first of its kind, our Transport Decarbonisation Strategy brought together the region’s leaders to speak out with ‘one voice’ on the need to address transport’s contribution to the climate emergency and the urgency of the transport sector acting to address the challenge. We remain committed in our ambition for the North to be at the forefront of making progress with decarbonising the sector.
We want to maximise the clean growth opportunities on offer in the region by harnessing the potential of businesses across the North to create a sustainable transport network fit for the future.
We have a commitment to update our Transport Decarbonisation Strategy in 2025 to ensure it presents new policy analysis focused around how the North can best achieve a fair and inclusive transport decarbonisation transition. As a first stage, 2023 will become our new baseline year, and will be used to help identify how much progress has been made to date.
TfN will continue to work with partners over the next 12 months to build out the tools, dashboards and analysis, that will help shape Local Transport Plans. This collaborative nature of the outputs will remain crucial for us in developing an inclusive way forward for all residents, communities and businesses.
Our STP is at the heart of TfN’s statutory role and responsibilities: it is how the North communicates a single vision for connecting the North.
The first STP set out an investment programme for the next 30 years, but we need to recognise that since 2019, the context in which TfN is operating has changed significantly. Faced with an existential threat in the form of a global pandemic business models for large parts of our economy have changed, bringing with it changes in travel demand. It is a reminder there is nothing immutable about our travel patterns, that change is possible, and that our approach to investment accordingly needs to be more flexible.
On a strategic level in 2023, work on our revised STP – our backbone narrative – including an updated Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review (NPIER) is ongoing. The NPIER will remind us of the size of the prize for the North (and the UK) of realising its economic potential and the key role that improved connectivity has to play. We will use the revised Strategic Transport Plan to set out the case for investment that is user-centred, place-based and outcome focused.
Alongside the development of our second STP we will take forward the actions and outcomes identified in our decarbonisation and freight strategies, put forward clear investment priorities for the next funding periods and deploy TfN’s technical and analytical capability to support our partners as they take forward proposals into delivery.
Road investment remains key to our vision of a successful North: our highways are used by pedestrians, cyclists, buses, freight and logistics, as well as by private motorists. We will be continuing our efforts to advocate for strategic investment in the North’s major road network, and working alongside DfT and National Highways to showcase the benefits of reliable, resilient roads for our region’s people and businesses.
It’s essential that we sustain the commitment to maintain our roads and wider transport networks in order to support our region in building back better and greener. So it is essential, too, that we continue to invest in both the Strategic Road Network (SRN) and the Major Road Network (MRN) in a way that meets the needs of our businesses and communities, and delivers best value now and into the future
There are a number of strategic projects moving forward across the North, yet many more still await confirmed funding or approval to proceed. On our roads there’s work to be done to turn proposals into delivery on the ground. Through the Highways North Board TfN will continue to work closely with DfT and National Highways in support of the delivery of agreed investment priorities on the Strategic Road Network.
We will work with our partners in the North to identify the need for investment, and work with National Highways to identify priorities for scheme development that can form part of the Roads Investment Strategy (RIS).
Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive at Transport for the North, said: “In 2023 we will continue making the case for strategic transport investments across the whole of the North; investments which are needed to deliver inclusive and sustainable economic growth that is transformational, and which will rebalance the UK economy.
“The evidence is clear: poor transport infrastructure and services are holding back the North’s economic potential. Investing in improving infrastructure will enable growth, improve access to jobs, and ensure the North is a great place to live and invest.
“We have a clear vision as to how investment in infrastructure and services will help unlock the potential of the North of England. We will continue to seek solutions to the challenges we face by harnessing the opportunities our work has identified.
“If we are to deliver a sustainable, practical and cost-effective multi-modal transport network that works for everyone, we will need to challenge received wisdom. By being focused on what needs to be done to deliver our strategic outcomes, the TfN Board will continue to show its ability to lead the debate, take difficult decisions, and provide the leadership the North requires.”
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