Transport Planners urge Government to reduce the need for travel in integrated transport strategy

smarter transport

Responding to the Government’s Integrated National Transport Strategy (INTS) Call for Ideas, the Transport Planning Society called on Ministers to work towards integrated policy-making across all Departments and levels of Government, with climate, land use and health as the focus of transport policy.

Then Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt Hon Louise Haigh MP, launched the INTS Call for Ideas on the 28th November 2024, inviting passengers, frontline workers, companies, organisations and other stakeholders to make submissions to inform the Government’s high-level strategy for transport for the next ten years.

In its submission to the Call for Ideas, the TPS urged the Government to consider how people access services and opportunities, making use of technology and advances in IT to decrease long distance travel.

The TPS also highlighted the importance of focusing on the needs of the user; using data for performance monitoring and resource allocation; implementing technology innovations like unified ticketing and payment systems; and learning from international best practice.

Commenting, TPS Policy Director Mark Frost said:

“Using our new groundbreaking new fifty strong policy panel we've pulled in views from across the industry as to what the INTS should seek to achieve if it's going to be a success. The message back from practitioners was clear - integration means far more than sympathetic timetabling across modes, or joined up fares. It's nothing less than a huge culture change for all government departments and across all tiers of government. Our five key integrations summarise the scale of the challenge, but also illustrate the size of the prize if we collectively get this right. We applaud the government for pushing forward with this initiative and look forward to further engagement in order to make it a reality.”

The TPS’ five key integrations are:

Integration of an “optimise first” approach to managing the network across all key transport operators and responsible authorities
Integration across government departments, and particularly with respect to climate and land use & transport
Integration across all tiers of government around a core mission to deliver sustainable transport
Innovation in how integration can support access to the network by all users
Integration between the mission and the funding and expertise necessary to deliver it

To read TPS' response in full, please click here.