Transport Crucible

These modes form the core elements of what is known as ‘public transport’. Vogue UK theory has it that these are the good guys of motorised transport – and that seems to be for jolly good reasons. In theory any member of the public can go where and when they want by simply paying a fare and travel without the expense of owning and running ‘private’ modes. In theory, provision and use of buses, trams and trains offers many social, economic and environmental benefits by facilitating cheap and efficient transport – especially for the urban and inter-urban masses. In practice, the total cost of providing that glittering array of expected benefits is never fully calculated. In practice, a bus company or a local administration will not accurately asses the full impact and real Cost:Benefit ratio of a bus lane that halves the highway space available to the majority road users –because they are commercially and ideologically driven to avoid doing so. And as one senior transport planner explained in an LM research interview, we don’t do a proper assessment of the impact on traffic and congestion of a bus lane or new junction scheme in case we get “the wrong answers”.
In practice, commercial gain is the most powerful driver of extending provision of bus, tram and train services in the UK and indeed extracting ever greater state support in fuel subsidies and exclusive access to public highways. Here, despite fuel price hikes and the credit crunch, profits for bus companies are booming. As The Times reports, Arriva had a massive pre-tax rise of £47.3 million in bus profits and a jump of £14.8 million from £1.1 from rail services.