Chair's Message - July 2023

Life as TPS Chair continues to be busy and I remain incredibly impressed by the huge amount of voluntary effort undertaken by the TPS Board, the Policy Group, our regional reps and the wider membership.    I think there’s great potential to align the great work we do on events, membership, comms, regions and the skills agenda so that each of these activities reinforces the others. 

Events and engagement

Future of Rail Seminar – ICE 4 May

I chaired an excellent seminar on the Future of (Great) British Rail at the ICE on 4 May.   This was almost exactly 3 months after Transport Secretary Mark Harper had given the George Bradshaw address (also at the ICE) on the future of rail. There was a great turnout to hear former TPS Chair and Director of Strategic Planning at the Great British Railway Transition Team (GBRTT) Elaine Seagriff give her views on the prospects for the rail sector (and for GBR) and then take questions from people attending in person and on-line. 

Sub-National Transport Bodies Conference – 5 June

The TPS was a sponsor for the second Sub-National Transport Bodies (STBs) conference in Birmingham on 5 June.  Presenters to the conference included Richard Holden MP (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DfT); Andy Rhind (Director of Regional Partnerships and Delivery at the DfT); Nick Harris, CEO of National Highways; and Anit Chandarana (Lead Director, GBR Transition Team).  All the speakers made clear that the STBs are critical in strategic transport planning for their regions and integrating with other sectors and issues, such as energy, public health and sustainable economic development. 

ICE Summer Lecture 19 June - “Roads and Decarbonisation”

I took part in a panel discussion as part of the ICE’s Summer Prestige Lecture, which explored whether we should be building any new roads given the challenge of decarbonising surface transport.  The keynote speakers were Nick Harris (CEO of National Highways) and Andy Falleyn, (Deputy Director for the Strategic Road Network, Welsh Government).  It was a fascinating debate, particularly given the Welsh Governments’s decision to cancel or pause a significant number of strategic road schemes alongside aiming to reduce road vehicle kms by 20% by 2030. Andy Falleyn made clear that (at least in Wales), electrification of the fleet will be insufficient to deliver transport decarbonisation and that tackling traffic levels (and hence network capacity) have to be included in any policy approach designed to reduce carbon emissions.    The contrast with the position of the UK Government was telling. 

Transport Practitioners’ Meeting – 28/29 June

TPS is also a sponsor of TPM and this was the first time I’ve attended it.  Unfortunately I was only able to attend for the second day, but it was excellent.  Really interesting sessions on integrating land use and transport planning; a “decarbonisation toolkit” for local authorities developed for Midlands Connect; and developments around redefining the role and purpose of the road network in Edinburgh and Glasgow.  The TPS Policy Director announced the Transport Planner of the Year (Will Pedley) and the first-ever Young Transport Planner of the Year at the TPM dinner (Grace Baily).   Congratulations to Will and Grace for their achievements!  

Transport Planning Day 2023

Plans are now well underway for TPD2023.  We have set up the TPD steering group, which has met twice.  The theme for TPD2023 is “Planning and delivering a rapid and equitable transition to a decarbonised transport system”.   It’s imperative that the transition to a decarbonised transport system does not exacerbate existing social and economic inequalities, either in transport or more widely. This is the set of policy and planning challenges we want to explore at TPD.  We are now focusing on designing the main TPD event, developing the programme of supporting events and making sure we have the sponsorship in place for this year’s event.   Please get in touch if you have any suggestions for potential TPD sponsors.  

TPS Annual Dinner and Summer Party

This year’s Annual Dinner was a big success.  We had a great turnout, with friends and colleagues from central Government, local government, consulting and academia comparing notes on the challenges and opportunities facing the transport sector.   Former TPS Chair and RTPI CEO Victoria Hills gave an inspiring after-dinner speech.  She brought together Bard’s description of the TPS (apparently formed in 1968!) with her experience working for three London Mayors and latterly as CEO of one of the leading professional membership bodies in the UK.    

Victoria’s answer to the question “what one thing would help us meet the numerous interlocking challenges we face?” was “devolution” – of funding and financing, spatial planning and decision-making.   Given the great work on sustainable transport being done in the devolved administrations, London and the other city regions, it was hard to disagree with this suggestion. 

Policy Developments

National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS) consultation.

TPS submitted an excellent response to the DfT Consultation on the NNNPS, which provides the strategic “backdrop” to decisions about development road and rail network infrastructure.  Many thanks to Keith Buchan, Keith Mitchell, Tom Van Vuren and Mark Frost for preparing the submission. Further thanks are also due to Keith Buchan, who gave evidence on the TPS submission to the Transport Select Committee.  It was a very impressive performance in the face of a challenging debate, which you can see here (Keith starts around 10:33) 

National Highways policy documents

National Highways have produced a raft of policy documents over the past few weeks.  Of particular significance (and relevance to TPS) are the Strategic Road Network Initial Report (essentially the opening “bid” for RIS3); the Long-Term Strategic Plan to 2050 (NH’s view of the long-term priorities for the Strategic Road Network); and the NH Environmental Sustainability Strategy.  Given the view of the Welsh Government on decarbonising road traffic, it is worth noting that the NH Sustainability Strategy commits to net zero corporate emissions by 2030, maintenance and construction emissions by 2040 and road user emissions by 2050, but the only action related to tackling road user emissions is to work collaboratively with other partners “to research innovative solutions that accelerate vehicle decarbonisation”. It remains to be seen whether this position is technically or politically sustainable.

Resolution Foundation Report on national road user charging

The Resolution Foundation has produced a new report to join the long list of other reports arguing that the Government needs to introduce a national road pricing scheme to tackle the revenue gap and risk of increased congestion caused by the electrification of the national vehicle fleet.  The technical/transport planning consensus on the need for national road pricing seems to be strong.   The challenge – as ever – will be around the politics of introducing any kind of national pricing scheme.   

Have a great summer wherever you are and I look forward to being back in touch in the autumn.