Good transport links bring clear economic benefits, but the UK still has a long way to go before its transport system is fit for purpose. As the Labour party gathered in Manchester, political hot potatoes such as High Speed 2, the proposed ‘northern corridor’ link between Manchester and Leeds and the problem of increasing airport capacity were under debate.
For Mary Creagh, shadow transport secretary, too little has been done to create a transport system which puts the passenger first. She bemoaned the tendancy of Whitehall clerks to think of transport as a series of “modes”.
“I walk, cycle and get the tube to get to Westminster. This needs to be looked at from the user’s perspective,” she said. For some of Creagh’s constituents living on Wakefield’s estate, it’s cheaper for a family to use a taxi together than to pay for the bus. “This is market failure,” she said.
But Sir Peter Hendy, commissioner of Transport for London, said he believed that transport was “only a means to an end”. “The end is economic growth in London and in other cities in Britain. The population of London is set to grow to 9 million by 2018 and whoever forms the future government has to recognise not only do we need investment but we also sufficient revenue to support this operation that takes everybody to work. Peak bus services are expensive. The poor are living further out of London. We need enough money in the next five years to pay for a bus service that takes people to work,” he explained.
Stewart Wingate, chief executive of London Gatwick Airport, said the most progressive development we could expect would be to “have a spade in the ground about a kilometre south of the existing [Gatwick] runway within the next parliamentary cycle.” He said we needed to see a commitment to additional airport capacity for the first time in 60 years, and it was important to lay down “the foundations of a runway that will serve future trends in aviation”.
These solutions may solve London’s transport problems, but what about the regions? Jon Lamonte, chief executive of Transport for Greater Manchester, called for devolution of powers to create a more integrated transport system. “We need a long-term investment plan with the funding to go with it,” he said. However Andrew Everett, chief strategy officer at the Transport Systems Catapult, said that this investment should be centred on technology and innovation, helping local small businesses work with larger corporations and transport operators. “We need to bring through new technologies moving from the research space into the real world and growth and business will come from that,” he added.
Gordon Marsden, shadow minister for transport, agreed. He expected a future Labour government to devolve powers, but also to see “transport as a mechanism for empowering people”, including helping young people into jobs and training and older people to avoid social isolation. He said transport should be “understood as a key generator of economic activity that not just fulfils those promises for lots of individuals but also energises and develops our regions and sub-regions.”
Apologising for the pun, the shadow minister concluded that Britain was on a “journey in transport”. “It’s not about fetishising a piece of equipment or track or aeroplane it’s about how those mechanisms deliver and liberate and expand personal and economic horizons as well,” he said.
But which of the lofty ambitions set out by politicians and policy makers is actually realistic? Referencing shadow chancellor Ed Balls’ earlier conference speech, Guardian associate editor Martin Kettle, chair of the discussion, said future spending on transport would not be paid for by additional borrowing. Wingate, however, has £1.5bn in private equity lined up to get his new runway up and running, and claimed no need for additional public funding. “We’re not interfering,” he said, “we’re building it on a stretch of land set to one side.”
In Manchester, the combined authority has the political clout to get things done. “We’ve had a £1bn transport fund that we have invested in Metro,” Lamonte said. “That’s how we have made things work. We have an airport line opening a year early. You wouldn’t have been able to do that without local arrangements. We’re not expecting a blank cheque, far from it. We need to align priorities between transport, housing and all other aspects of growing a city. And we need to get those decisions made locally.”
This conference fringe debate was designed and produced by the Guardian to a brief agreed by partners Gatwick Airport, Transport for London, Transport for Greater Manchester and the Transport Systems Catapult. All content is editorially independent.
Read more from the Guardian Big Ideas at the 2014 party conferences.
