Transport is often talked about in terms of specific projects, whether that’s large schemes, such as the up-to £39bn Northern Powerhouse Rail, or a new roundabout, or crossing on the edge of a town centre.
This means we might talk about the benefits of particular schemes to help support their case, publicly, or in strict business-case terms. For example, Northern Powerhouse Rail will bring up to 10 million people within 90 minutes of four or more northern cities, compared to just 2 million today. Or that new crossing may enable more people to safely get to the shops or to visit their friends across the street.
There is no doubt both these approaches are important in their own right, but it’s when a whole network comes together that it can make a real difference. That is much more difficult to articulate without using terms such as agglomeration, but is fundamentally more important if we are to create the North of England we all want to see.
We need to have a transport network that serves people – linking up the local, regional and national.
That new crossing could make it easier for someone to get to a bus stop, to get a train station that takes them to the other side of the Pennines on high-speed rail, where they get a tram to take them to their final destination – perhaps for a job which they may have never considered without better connections.
The need for transport to play its part in the decarbonisation agenda, perhaps the most important challenge we must tackle for the next generation, is understood, but can only be delivered when innovation is embraced, with technologies like hydrogen and electric vehicles playing their part.
Smart travel is also important, so however many modes people travel on, they will know that they are getting the fairest price, and, above all else, it is easier and simpler, encouraging people to make that choice to use public transport in the first place, before reaching for their car keys.
As co-chairs of Transport Across the North APPG, this is the vision we have for the future of transport in the North of England. We know it won’t be easy, and we will have to make those cases for investment, large and small, but the prize is much greater than the sum of all those individual schemes.
The current pandemic will have a short-term impact on passenger confidence in public transport, but we’re sure it is a battle that we can win, and will be won.
Ensuring we make each single project the best it can be is how we can build back better, but always understanding each of the pieces can bring the region together and make the most of the opportunities ahead.
