Britain is pretty good at spending money on infrastructure. In the most recent OECD data, only China spent more on rail infrastructure as a share of GDP. Yet the problem for Britain is that we’re pretty bad at actually building infrastructure for the money that we do spend. The bulk of the money in the […]
When you drive through the potholes and your suspension gives out, or when you sit fuming at temporary traffic lights because of roadworks, it’s for a reason. It’s because the cost to you in delays and disruption doesn’t figure much in the council’s budgeting or the contractors’ work schedules. The familiar ‘I don’t give a […]
This week, Nimby Watch is in Bath, where councillors are at loggerheads over the concept of safety. I dislike Bath, and do not think it agrees with me, and yet Bath is to be my home? Aren’t you full of surprises? I didn’t have you down as a fan of Jane Austen, and here you […]
Trains run on rails. And access to these rails determines what services can be offered. Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries the railways were privately owned. Most companies, however small, initially owned their own permanent way. It soon became apparent that, rather than forcing passengers on long journeys to disembark and join another […]
Across the UK, millions of people rely on the railways to travel. From 2024 to 2025, there were 1.7 billion passenger rail journeys, of which 1.08 billion were completed within a single region. And yet all too often, local rail has been neglected, with funding prioritised for London and the South East. As a result […]
‘I accept that over the last year, performance at South Western Railway has not been up to scratch…we will leave no stone unturned in making sure that his constituents have a better travel experience in future,’ pledged the Transport Secretary in a Commons answer earlier this month. Heidi Alexander had been asked by the Lib […]
It might seem that, right now, the transport debate is all about electric vehicles. Or is it? The EU is rowing back on its 2035 petrol cars ban. Kemi Badenoch has pledged to ditch the 2030 Zero Emission Vehicle mandate. All the while, industry fears global domination by Chinese EVs. In reality, the EV discussion […]
It appears that the Government is going to freeze rail fares for the coming year. This is a strange policy. Economists should never be very happy with the strategy of holding down prices as a ‘cost of living’ or anti-inflation measure. It produces distortions which are difficult to address subsequently. As the passenger railway is […]
People say nothing works in Britain. That we cannot build anything any more. We hear about a decade of form filling before a spade is in the ground. Then, when we finally get going, only our grandchildren have a hope of seeing it actually built. But that’s not true everywhere. On March 14, digging started […]
Four billion journeys are taken by local buses every year. That’s nearly twice as many by rail, London Underground and Glasgow Subway combined. They save parents ferrying teens around, keep the elderly connected and provide an affordable way for commuters to get to work. There are also significant visible benefits to our communities from buses […]
What do high-flying LinkedIn profiles and literal air travel have in common? They both want to show a smooth, seamless ascent, with no turbulence and definitely no bumpy landings. It’s true that on LinkedIn, you can often view someone’s career journey taking off and the twists and turns they take. A promotion here, a glossing […]
The Chancellor’s big growth speech on Wednesday morning was so widely trailed that it contained few surprises. But it was still the clearest and most coherent statement of her economic philosophy and plans so far. Before diving into the detail, it is only fair to welcome the change of tone. It has been refreshing to […]
Having spent more of my life than is natural arguing in favour of airport expansion, I can tell you that Rachel Reeves is right to pick the cause up, as she is reportedly doing. But she has chosen a mouthful which it is unusually difficult to chew on. The proposal I helped put forward – […]
‘Today, on time and on budget, the environmentally friendly pride of Scottish engineering, MV Glen Sannox, makes the first of its four ferry crossings from Ardrossan to Arran, the busiest route on the islands network.’ That’s how it was meant to be. But there’s no pride, only relief, that this island lifeline has finally arrived, […]
It looks as if the tunnel boring machines have been ordered for HS2’s big dig from Old Oak Common to Euston. If so, this is very bad news, not improved by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh declaring that it would never have made sense not to build the link to Euston. To be fair to the […]
The Government’s decision to cave into the unions and offer a 15% pay rise to train drivers will be met with scorn by the public. Labour have been quick to cry poverty since entering government, blaming the Conservatives for a dreadful economic inheritance, but the decision to splash the cash on a 5.5% public sector […]
The new Labour government has inherited a country that feels “stuck”, and has done for many years. Economic growth has flatlined. Infrastructure projects can’t seem to get off the ground, public services don’t work, and costs of living keep going up and up and up. While tackling this stagnation will be difficult, there are a […]
Labour’s announcement that they will renationalise nearly all passenger rail services within their first five years of government has been received positively by the usual suspects. The Guardian has come out praising it as a ‘sensible plan that passengers need’ citing the failure of railway privatisation as ‘a glaring failure of the Tory ideological fixation […]
After a long period of virtual silence on railway matters, the Labour Party has announced a plan for the future of this near-two-century-old industry. Or at least shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh has announced that the plan will be set out ‘in two to three weeks’ time’. For the moment, the headline is that passenger […]
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, last week announced that he was going to freeze Transport for London (TfL) fares until March 2025. To cover the loss to TfL, he will give them £123m. When I say that Khan will give TfL £123m, I don’t mean it literally, of course. Khan hasn’t got that kind […]
There’s only one way to cross the Thames east of London today. Unsurprisingly, this makes the Dartford Crossing is one of the most congested roads in Britain. While it was designed for 135,000 vehicles a day, it averages around 160,000, and on the busiest days more than 200,000 vehicles drive (slowly) over this essential piece […]
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