An effective, efficient, and sustainable transport network for the North of England is fundamental to everyday life.
Transport for the North (TfN) has a clear vision: By 2050 the North of England will have become a thriving, socially inclusive region. That our communities, businesses and places will all benefit from sustainable economic growth, improved health and wellbeing, and access to opportunities for all.
This will be achieved through a transformed zero emission, integrated, safe and sustainable transport system, that will enhance connectivity, resilience, and journey times for all users.
As 2024 gets underway, we sat down with our Chief Executive, Martin Tugwell, to ask him how TfN will continue to collaborate with its partners to deliver the change and investment needed to transform the North.
A continuing challenge for the industry is how to make best use of the funds available to invest in infrastructure and services. With pressure on public expenditure set to remain, it’s even more important to reduce inertia in the system, to simplify processes and to accelerate delivery. After all, the sooner we can get things delivered the sooner everyone benefits from the investment and the more likely costs will be controlled.
Across the profession we need to be focused on identifying outcomes for people and places. We need to be comfortable in recognising that solutions to some transport issues lie with other policy choices. And we need to set out how delivery of some transport solutions are dependent upon aligning investment in other infrastructure sectors.
And in all of this we need to truly see things from the user viewpoint. Diversity of perspective and thought is essential in this regard, as is challenging ourselves to ensure we see things through the eyes of the communities we serve. In this we must continually be alert to how our technical language often acts as a barrier, with the potential to appear as elitist and out of touch.
What I am particularly proud of since the first STP is the work TfN has done to expand and deepen the evidence base upon which our advice to Government draws. In addition to updating our understanding of the North’s economic potential (through the Northern Powerhouse Independent Review), our Regional Decarbonisation Strategy has mapped out the challenge and the opportunities when it comes to the environmental impact of transport, whilst our ground-breaking work on Transport Related Social Exclusion provides better insight on how access to transport brings its own challenges to individuals and communities.
This has enabled significant progress in addressing many of the challenges facing transport planners: as a result, the revised STP is focused on outcomes that are place-based, and user centred.
At the same time, we’ve seen TfN continue to evolve as an organisation. Our technical work, combined with innovative thinking has enabled TfN to continue to be a strategic thought leader, as well as being a champion for the North, its residents and businesses.
It’s important to bear in mind that the TfN Board’s position of ‘NPR in full’ is underpinned by its understanding of the evidence base, and the ambition of the North’s Political and Business leaders.
Some 200 years ago the first railways were instrumental to putting the North at the heart of economic growth. Today, the North’s leaders remain just as committed as their forebearers to economic growth and our railways are once again key to achieving that outcome.
In addition to continuing to place ‘NPR in full’ at the heart of transforming the North, there are a number of pan-regionally significant issues where there is a need for a commitment to deliver solutions that benefit not only the North but the entire UK. This need is set out in the revised Strategic Transport Plan and will be used to shape our advice to Government.
And we will continue to build upon the rail devolution that already exists (through the Rail North Agreement) to embed the ambition of our Strategic Transport Plan into the business plans of our main rail operators. In this way we can ensure that there is the investment in services that support economic growth.
That there is a need for reform and it remains a priority for the rail sector. However, the year ahead is an opportunity for the North to set out how the rail devolution that already exists here can be used to make real progress with key aspects rail reform ahead of any legislation.
Our friends in the rail sector are already closely involved in our work, through representation on the TfN Board and related groups. Our revised Strategic Transport Plan sets out the future role of the rail network in the long term in enabling transformation. It gives us the basis for working with the rail sector, as they develop more detailed proposals that can feed into each investment cycle.
Meanwhile, through our role as co-sponsor (alongside the Department for Transport) for Northern Powerhouse Rail we will continue to harness the technical knowledge and tools held within TfN to develop the business cases that underpin investment decisions.
And through the Rail North Agreement we will work with our main train operators to embed the ambition of the Strategic Transport Plan into the business planning that delivers the North’s rail services.
Uniquely, in the North we have the governance structures, technical capability, and experience to be an early pilot for the rail reform agenda.
Local bus services are a critical part of our transport system, and the worsening state of services is a key issue for the TfN Board. Having established a Northern Bus Forum in 2023, the focus for the year ahead is on supporting our partners to make the case for further investment.
In this we continue to develop our modelling capability and analysis tools so that they can be used by our partners, as well developing the role of the Bus Forum as an opportunity to share good practice across the North.
I’m very excited by the way in which we have been able to develop the ‘TfN Offer’. The models, tools, and capabilities we have developed as TfN represent an appreciable investment by the public sector. Sharing that knowledge, and our experience with our partners, and more widely is fundamental to TfN’s role as a centre of excellence and strategic thought leader.
Amongst the wider pressures on local and city-region government, their ability to access the technical experience and knowledge held by TfN is of increasing importance, as testified by the ever-growing list of enquiries. Sharing our work with England’s other Sub National Transport Bodies, and indeed other devolved administrations, adds further value, as does our leadership in the development of the Common Analytical Framework.
A key area for TfN in the year ahead is the development of a new playbook – one that shows how we can harness the flexibility that is said to exist within the Treasury ‘Green Book’ to enable consideration of wider social and environmental benefits. For a region like the North, where investment is often about unlocking potential, we need to maximise these benefits.
A consequence of the focus through the STP on delivering outcomes is that our experience of working with other infrastructure sectors continues to grow. Increasingly delivery of transport outcomes are dependent upon investment in energy generation/distribution systems, or upon availability of ubiquitous digital connectivity.
Our work on Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure is a great example of this in practice: our previous work with the National Grid and the Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) has led to TfN developing a stronger working relationship with the regulator, which in turn is leading to new opportunities to achieve the much sought for ‘joined up’ approach in a very practical way.
Making progress with ticketing reform is a priority for the TfN Board. Central to this is gaining the confidence of the user that the system is simple, reliable, and trustworthy. And whilst it remains important that city-regions and local authorities more widely remain at the forefront of taking forward ticketing initiatives in their own areas, there is also a need to ensure that they enable a traveller to travel with confidence across the North as a whole.
Drawing on our experience from previous work at the regional level, the year ahead will see us move forward with implementing the Connected Mobility Strategy. Working with our partners across the North, as well as contributing to the work of national initiatives, we are already laying the foundations required to make progress.