Whatever happened to integrated public transport?

I recall this lofty aim from the 1970s as being something I thought of as a brilliant idea. Little did I know that UK politics would soon head in exactly the opposite direction via Bus Deregulation in 1986 and Rail Privatisation in 1993.

 

A Merseyrail train on the Ormskirk Line

I’m not sure what those behind these two Acts of Parliament actually wanted to achieve (other than to save money, of course) but driven by political dogma what they actually achieved was pretty much anti-everything integrated public transport, as buses and trains were put in competition. But we were told that market forces would lead to better transportation. Well, that didn’t happen because the real objective was little more than cutting government transport costs, whilst favouring the private car. Yes, there have been some limited successes with rail but it has led to a fragmented railway with huge costs still requiring big government subsidies. In my humble opinion had British Rail been modernised and enabled to be successful like most other developed public transport systems across the world (USA & Canada being notable exceptions) we would now have a much better railway and decent bus services.

Moving on, the fact that each railway operator in the UK procures their own trains means that the costs must be higher than having a coherent large scale purchasing process with all the associated economies. Why, one set of trains purchased not so long ago by TransPennine Express has been parked in sidings and is now unused!

Passengers not being able to use tickets bought from one operator on a competitors train also mitigates against use of the railway system and don’t get me started on the myriad of tickets available via differing operators.

Bus deregulation, which was interestingly not imposed on London, has likewise been pretty much an unmitigated disaster with the number of bus routes dropping pretty much every year, not least because of austerity. And of course we’ve continued to developed car-centric communities where to get anywhere you need to have a car.

The logic of running poor quality public transport services and thereby forcing many to own and maintain highly expensive cars, who otherwise would not need to have them, has long beaten me. Our roads are so congested and every new road built leads to more traffic rather than solutions to traffic jams that by-passes etc. are meant to achieve. Plus, people who really can’t afford to run cars pretty much have to have one making their household budgets stretch too far.

In 1980, as a someone new to politics, I listened to the former Liberal MP David Alton talk about integrated public transport and indeed the need for local public transport to be free. I was sure he was right then and I’m damn sure he was right as we move into 2025, but as I’ve already said just after hearing his views integrated public transport was pretty much abandoned in favour of the private car.

Of course, having created the myth that if we all have cars transportation will be far more convenient etc. how do we change direction, as we surely must do, to recreate what we once used – buses, trams and trains? Folks like their cars, they believe that with more road building congestion will be sorted out, when the opposite is true. They’ve moved further away from where they work allowing for long driving times to get to their place of employment in their own car. Doing that journey by public transport could well be all but impossible. Now, significant numbers work from home much of the time thereby changing travelling habits, yet our roads are still choked with traffic.

Trams have returned to some UK cities but probably with the exception of Greater Manchester the lines are far too limited, Nottingham being an example of a city requiring significantly more lines for Nottingham Express Transit (NET) to really be effective in reducing car usage.

Merseyside and Tyne and Wear have redeveloped old railway lines and have significant Metro-type systems but they are not as extensive as they need to be. Merseyside for example desperately needs to extend its Merseyrail system to places such as Preston, Wigan, Wrexham, and Liverpool Airport and its main Station, Liverpool Central is very much at capacity and can’t really cope with greater passenger numbers.

And what about buses? Each year routes across the UK shrink, they’re too infrequent (even non-existent in rural areas) and buses, of course, get stuck in traffic jams too. I was struck, and not in a good way, by an ‘idea’ from the Liverpool City Region Mayor during 2024 to introduce ‘Gliders’. They’d actually be buses made to look like trams! Such a timid ‘solution’ for Merseyside brought with it rather too many public laughs and little backing you’ll not be surprised to hear. In my world, buses should be very much integrated with trains and often feeders to rail services.

In my own Merseyside community we have circular community buses that link with one of our local railway stations but the buses don’t meet every train and often they seem to leave the station just as a train is pulling in! And surely such buses should be electric as they follow shortish regular routes. Oh, and yes of course Mr Alton, they should be free to get on as passengers using them, other than pensioners, have to pay twice to use the bus and then the train meaning the joint cost mitigates against jumping on them in the first place. In turn, locals who would use them just get their car out and even run a car they may not otherwise even need in joined up transportation world!

Our new government is taking some tentative steps in the right direction but sadly with no money in their/our piggy bank to make a significant impacts. Our stalled economy is at odds with the likes of the Irish Republic, for example, where public transport ambitions (and the money to pay for them) are significant indeed. We have to be optimistic and keep pushing a sustainable transport agenda because more road vehicles really are putting us on the road to ruin.