Significant rail expansion is the 'only viable option' to help UK cities achieve their ambitions on economic growth and meeting housing demand, whilst also creating attractive urban centres with less road traffic and better air quality.
This report sets out a vision of what a step change in rail provision could mean for passengers and cities - and the obstacles that stand in the way.
Our report, Number crunch: Transport trends in the city regions, identifies some of the most defining patterns of the past decade (and projected future trends) that are changing the face of the UK’s city regions, and the way that people travel within them.
Ageing urban populations, rapid bus passenger decline and huge growth in private hire vehicles are just some of the dramatic shifts taking place in UK cities.
The report draws on data from our unique, free and interactive online tool ‘Data Hub’, which allows users to generate bespoke analysis, graphics and charts of transport, economic and population data.
Regional rail services carry more than three times the numbers of passengers than the much higher profile long distance (Inter-City) services. As the UK’s city regions increasingly develop their service sector economies and concentrate employment in city centres, rail enables large numbers of people to be moved efficiently and effectively into these ever more congested places.
With signs that central government is beginning to recognise the strength of these arguments, there is a need to translate them into something more tangible and practical by using evidence taken from case studies from around the UK rail network. By providing case studies that potentially have a resonance with other locations, this report aims to help these locations demonstrate the potential economic, social and environmental benefits of developing their own projects to stakeholders and funding and delivery partners.
Policy futures for urban transport sets out how, with more focused governance in place, the city regions are delivering major investment programmes including on public transport, highways and active travel, and smart ticketing. The report says that - with the right national policy framework - further and faster progress can be made, including:
Our ‘Rail Devolution Works’ report argues that further rail devolution will enable other regions and areas to also radically transform rail services in a way that supports economic growth at the same time as improving the journey experience for passengers.
The report takes a detailed look at how devolution changed rail services for the better in Merseyside, on London Overground, in Scotland and in Tyne and Wear.
Policy futures for urban transport sets out how, with more focused governance in place, the city regions are delivering major investment programmes including on public transport, highways and active travel, and smart ticketing. The report says that - with the right national policy framework - further and faster progress can be made, including:
Our ‘Rail Devolution Works’ report argues that further rail devolution will enable other regions and areas to also radically transform rail services in a way that supports economic growth at the same time as improving the journey experience for passengers.
The report takes a detailed look at how devolution changed rail services for the better in Merseyside, on London Overground, in Scotland and in Tyne and Wear.
This report sets out our vision for how future UK urban transport policy could unfold in a way that enables the nation’s urban areas to deliver smart and sustainable growth that has far-reaching benefits. It looks at the great strides our city regions have already made and proposes fifteen ways in which national government and transport authorities can work together to create the transport networks urban areas need in order to fully realise their potential.
This report aims to provide decision makers with a guide to the implications for urban transport of transformative social and technological change and how they can best respond.
The report (which was produced in collaboration with Arup Foresight) identifies four key overarching trends:
This report sets out the success of regional rail over the past decade and a half despite limited investment when compared to other rail sectors. The report then goes on to develop two hypothetical scenarios to demonstrate how investment in regional rail could deliver even greater benefits, significantly reducing subsidy and growing the benefits delivered to our city region economies.
This document sets out the progress we have made and the barriers that need to be overcome if the city regions are to get ticketing that looks and feels more like Oyster.
This report highlights the essential role of urban freight in ensuring the effective functioning of the UK economy and presents a fresh vision designed to safeguard this role as well as protect the environment and quality of life for communities. It envisages that every opportunity should be taken for freight to make its way to urban areas by rail or water, either directly into those areas, or into the major distribution parks that serve them. It argues that those distribution sites should be located so that it is practical for goods to travel the last mile(s) into urban centres using zero/low emission modes. These last mile journeys should be achieved as safely, unobtrusively and with as little environmental impact as possible. The report explores a number of ideas that could assist in achieving this vision and calls for a broader, nationwide freight strategy to provide direction and leadership to the industry and its stakeholders.
This report shows how the North's booming railways are integral to its economic prospects; and shows why future plans for the North's railways should be based on expansion and growth.
This report shows how regional rail is allocated a disproportionate share of the railways' overall costs which distorts the wider debate about its value for money. The report sets out how an alternative fairer, more defensible and rational system would halve regional rail's share of government support.
A report for pteg by Transport for Quality of Life intended to help widen the scope of debate about regional rail by considering whether more thoroughgoing governance changes might offer greater benefits and whether these benefits are worth the potential risks and costs associated with deeper reform.
Stephen Edwards, the Executive Director of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), is the new Chair of the Urban Transport Group.
His appointment follows the end of the two-year term of outgoing Chair Tobyn Hughes, Managing Director at Nexus.
The Government’s ‘root and branch’ review into rail must bring about further devolution of rail responsibilities if the UK is to realise its ambition of creating a world-class railway, says the Urban Transport Group.
Transport expert Stephen Joseph is to investigate the benefits that flow from devolved authorities' involvement in railway stations, for a new report for the Urban Transport Group.
The Urban Transport Group has today welcomed the appointment of Andrew Jones MP as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, with responsibility for rail.
The Urban Transport Group has today welcomed the Department of Health and Social Care’s ‘Prevention is better than cure’ vision, whilst also highlighting th
Transport has a key role to play in helping the UK’s post-industrial towns to thrive – putting them firmly back on the map, a report by the Urban Transport Group finds today.
Further devolution of rail services, greater funding for buses and reform of taxi and Private Hire Vehicle legislation – these are just three parts of a new deal on funding and powers that is required to keep the UK’s cities moving forward.
