Lord Adonis made the much-anticipated announcement of plans for a UK high speed rail link today. Detailed plans for the route between London and Birmingham have been published for consultation, along with proposals for a £30bn “Y” shaped network also taking in Manchester, the East Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds, and there is future work to come on extending the lines to Scotland and the North East.

The TUC’s immediate reaction was to welcome the plans as bringing a great boost to the economy, jobs and skills, although we warned about the danger of neglecting the rest of the network. As we digest the government proposals and the enormous HS2 report, we will be looking to see whether the proposals can answer these five questions: Read more »

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The news this morning that the Conservatives have rejected Lord Adonis’ offer of an early look at the High Speed Rail White Paper should worry supporters of high speed rail. Read more »

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Today’s PBR gave some positive signals on transport, with a distinctly green hue.  Unfortunately there wasn’t much detail, nor much new money, though there was a welcome financial boost for electric vehicles. Read more »

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The announcement yesterday that the operating arm of Tyne and Wear Metro is to be privatised was met with bitter disappointment by unions and community campaigners in the region and nationally. Read more »

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Just days after the East Coast rail service passed back into public hands, the Government has published plans for re-privatising the route, with the process getting underway next year.  More worrying still, the announcement suggests that c2c, one of the other routes operated by National Express, will be allowed to run its course and then re-let according to the existing timetable.  As I wrote recently, unions have been campaigning  for the operator to be stripped of that franchise too after they handed back the keys on the East Coast.

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At midnight tonight the troubled East Coast Mainline will be taken back into public hands under a new, publicly owned company, after National Express failed to meet the terms of its £1.4 billion franchise agreement.

The Government says the line will be managed by the new East Coast body for the next two years, but unions are calling for the prestigious route to be kept in public hands and run on a not-for-profit basis. We’re in good company: this summer the Transport Select Committee argued that an East Coast line kept under public ownership would be an ideal way to measure up the franchise system, acting as a comparator to the lines run by private operators. Read more »

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The recession could lead to a travel revolution, as organisations and staff look to cut costs during the current economic turmoil.

I’m making this prediction during Commute Smart Week, which is run by my organisation Work Wise UK. Now in its fourth year, the week  highlights a number of ways of avoiding the misery of traveling to and from work in the dark, and the depression and despondency that many experience as a result, by working and commuting ’smarter’. Read more »

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A quick hat-tip to Left Foot Forward for this piece on the massive fare rises for London public transport announced by Boris Johnson last week. The bus fare rises in particular mean that it will be the poorest who will feel the most severe impact of the change.  LFF will be investigating further this week, as I’m sure will Dave Hill on his London blog.

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In his own inimitable style, George Monbiot argues in The Guardian today to allow car firms to go to the wall.  Most of the article is quite rightly a condemnation of the car industry for failing to up its green game despite demanding subsidies.  He is also right to attack governments for failing to require improvements in the industry. Read more »

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