Improving the service provided by Britain’s rail and bus networks needs to be central to any plan for a Low Traffic Future. So too is the promotion of various forms of shared transport, including car-clubs, ride-sharing schemes and public cycle hire schemes.

Yet at present Britain’s bus and rail networks are expensive, unreliable and poorly co-ordinated, mainly due to a combination of underfunding and organisational failures. The idea of public cycle-hire is mostly still limited to a few larger cities (and often to just the central areas of these cities), while car-clubs and ride-sharing are still seen as niche activities rather than as normal options.

The viability of public transport has been seriously undermined by the covid pandemic. Yet if we want a Low Traffic Future with all its benefits for tackling congestion, pollution and the climate emergency, we need to support the revival of public and shared transport as easy, convenient, inexpensive and normal ways to get around.

The solutions involve:

• Expanding and increasing the capacity of the rail network, building new or upgraded stations, and investing in critical power and signalling systems, so that cheaper, more frequent, better-connected, more reliable and greener rail services can serve more parts of the country.
• Similarly, supporting more frequent and reliable bus and coach services, e.g. by improving bus priority in urban areas and by boosting the coverage and frequency of rural services. Rural buses are a lifeline for rural communities: without them, people who are unable to drive (including young and older people, people with some disabilities and those who simply cannot afford to run a car) face social and economic isolation, unable to reach schools, colleges or work-places other than by relying on lifts and taxis.
• Improving public transport within National Parks and other protected landscapes, as well as for travelling to them. People will feel much more inclined to leave the car at home when going on weekend breaks or holidays if they feel they can get around without a car when they get there.
• Positively promoting shared transport, e.g. car clubs in residential areas or ride-sharing for people travelling the same workplaces or business parks.
• Supporting the growth of public cycle hire schemes, as well as targeted opportunities for people to try cargo-bikes and non-standard pedal cycles, including those with electric assistance
• Promoting better integration of all of the above, including coordinated timetabling, through ticketing and ‘Mobility as a Service’ platforms.

Rail, light rail and metro services

Our rail networks suffer from:

• High fares, together with a lack of transparency about what discounted fares are available, and inflexible season ticket rules that do not reflect that, for many people, the regular commute is now a thing of the past.
• Overcrowding, particularly at peak times – meaning that the passengers paying the highest fares often get the worst service.
• Old, uncomfortable and dirty trains on non-electric lines.
• Cancellations and delays – often due to failures of the rail infrastructure itself (e.g. maintenance, signalling or power failures).
• Poor customer service, including a lack of staff at stations and poor information when things go wrong.
• A lack of provision for disabled people – although wheelchair spaces on trains are now standard, many stations lack step-free access and tactile paving, and it can be hard to access mobility support, especially if problems arise (e.g. if a connecting train is delayed).

We hope that the Government’s Rail White Paper (also known as the Shapps-Williams reforms) will address at least some of these problems when it is enacted as part of the Transport Bill, expected in 2023. However there is also a serious need to invest in:

• Reopening disused rail lines and making improvements to stations (e.g. longer platforms and lifts to promote accessibility) and other infrastructure (e.g. improved signalling) on existing lines;
• Lower fares, more transparent fare structures and more flexible season tickets, as well as integration with other public and shared transport modes; 
• More comfortable and reliable trains (preferably electric);
• Rail infrastructure, including electrification as well as signalling systems etc;
• Stations, including accessibility improvements;

In larger cities, light rail and metro systems (the latter often being underground) can carry significant numbers of passengers at peak times, on routes which are fixed and therefore easy to visualise and remember. Light rail systems can make use of suburban rail lines, increasing the  frequency of services but connecting them to routes which run on-street through the hearts of the cities they serve. The permanence of the investment in a tram system can lend prestige to a city, while the arrangement of tracks and platforms is very space-efficient and offers excellent disabled access. For more, see this report from the Urban Transport Group.

However, trams and light rail systems have high installation costs, can be disruptive when they fail, their routes cannot be varied or extended easily and, if not designed carefully, the tram-rails themselves can create safety hazards for cycle users. There are debates about whether their service quality can be achieved more cost-effectively, safely and flexibly by opting for some form of guided bus system, including those where the bus is guided by white lines or magnetic wiring rather than by a separate kerb.

Buses and coaches

Buses are an essential lifeline for many rural communities especially for people who cannot or do not drive, whether because they are too young, have a disability or simply cannot afford to run a car. Yet many people have lost bus services which they depended on to reach schools or colleges, employment or training, and other key facilities. Many villages have a bus service that runs less than once a day (i.e. on certain days of the week only), or no bus service at all. CPRE, the countryside charity, has published research on ‘transport deserts’, finding that 56% of small rural towns now fit their definition of a ‘transport desert’ or are at risk of doing so.

Buses, like train services, have been badly hit by the pandemic. The Government published its National Bus Strategy, Bus Back Better, in 2021. It promised £3bn to support lower fares, more frequent services, improved bus priority and support for zero-emissions buses. However, local authority bids to the fund totalled £10bn, and it turned out that only £1.6bn would be available: £0.5bn for mayoral combined authorities (as part of their City Regional Sustainable  Transport Settlements (CRSTS) funding, and £1.08bn for Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) submitted by just 31 other authorities. It meant that 3 out of every 5 councils  who applied for BSIP funding had received nothing, while even those who did receive funding only received an average of 24% of what they had bid for. For more, see the Campaign for Better Transport’s report Funding local bus services in England.

CPRE has called for England to follow the Swiss model of providing a minimum of an hourly bus service from 6am till midnight, for every village above a certain population size (e.g. 300 inhabitants in the Zurich and Bern regions). CPRE estimates that this would cost £2.7bn annually but would provide huge benefits in terms of boosting education, training and employment opportunities, saving parents time from fulfilling escort duties or the costs of hiring taxis, while also reducing the congestion, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions associated with car travel.

There is also significant potential to improve the quality of coach services, by creating coachway interchanges at edge-of-town sites (typically next to the motorway network), where intercity coaches can connect with rapid public transport (preferably rail-based) connections into city centres.

Car clubs and ride sharing

Car clubs and ride sharing schemes are both ways in which people can have use of a car when required, without needing to own one.

Traditional car sharing schemes are similar to straightforward car rental, though the cars are usually available from parking bays in residential areas rather than from a car rental depot. Still, the car normally needs to be returned ‘back to base’, i.e. to the place where it was picked up.

Variants of this model are emerging, with larger car club operators now able to offer one-way journeys, though so far this is more common in Germany than the UK. Another option is peer-to-peer lending, where individuals offer to rent out their cars to other individuals, rather like an AirBnB for cars.

Ride-sharing is another form of peer-to-peer collaboration, but involves individuals giving lifts to other individuals. It differs from ride-hailing apps like Uber, in that the drivers are not seeking to make a living from providing this service, they are simply offering a lift while making a journey for which they would be driving anyway. Ride-sharing can be brokered by websites such as BlaBlaCar or Liftshare. Liftshare also sets up ride-sharing schemes based on workplaces or business parks, e.g. at engineering firm Arup’s business campus in the West Midlands. 

Cycle hire schemes

Cycle hire can take the following distinct forms:

• Cycle hire based on designated hire and drop-off locations, in which cycles can be unlocked by registering payment) either at docking stations or from marked areas (where users can park their bike without additional charge or penalty at the end of a ride).
• Free-floating (or ‘dockless’) cycle hire, where the cycle hire operator allows cycles to be picked up and dropped off at any location within their operating zone.
• Hub-based cycle hire, where bikes are hired and returned to staffed locations, e.g. at train stations or at recreational destinations (e.g. in or near national parks). Cycles usually have to be returned to the location where they were collected, though some operators have networks of hire locations, enabling cycles to be hired at one location and dropped off at another (similar to larger car-hire schemes).
• Workplace-based pool bikes.
• Cycle loan schemes, often run by social enterprises and/or based at community locations, where, cycles can be loaned out on a ‘try before you buy’ basis.

For all of these options, the pedal cycles themselves can either be conventional or electrically-assisted cycles, and may include non-standard cycles that can be used as mobility aids (e.g. tricycles, regular tandems, side-by-side tandems or hand-cycles).

In 2018, a wave of dockless cycle hire operators swept through UK towns and cities, many of them being Chinese companies and/or backed by venture capital. However it quickly became apparent that this was not an economically viable model and that, in any case, operators tended to avoid more disadvantaged areas. This has prompted recognition among councils that viable public cycle hire schemes need at least some initial capital funding support to get established, with additional revenue funding support to maintain the operations, particularly in more deprived areas. Still, the most successful schemes (e.g. Paris’s Velib scheme and the Santander scheme in London) have been very effective in helping to ‘normalise’ cycling, and can attract 6 or more rides per bike per day.

Integration: coordinated timetabling, through ticketing and ‘Mobility as a Service’.

Rail operators and transport authorities (e.g. combined metropolitan authorities, county and most city councils) need to work more closely together to improve the coordination of rail and bus timetables, though transport authorities also need greater powers to achieve this where voluntary agreements cannot be reached. It is hoped that the Government’s plans to restructure Britain’s railways could open up opportunities for improvements.

Similarly, there is a need to simplify and integrate ticketing and payment schemes for public and shared transport. The Urban Transport Group (UTG) and EU have produced evidence showing that integrated ticketing can substantially increase public transport patronage, as well as increasing revenues, improving passenger satisfaction, speeding up boarding times, reducing fraud and operational costs and, crucially, reducing car use. The West of England Combined Authority is actively seeking to improve integrated ticketing in and around Bristol, Bath and the surrounding region.

One opportunity to integrate payment is the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms. MaaS is effectively a digital platform which enables users to see the full range of options for the journey they wish to make, and then make a single on-demand payment for whatever option they choose. This can include public or shared transport (including cycle hire) as well as taxis and ride-hailing options. It can help users find sustainable transport options in real time. Trials (e.g. in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester) have shown that MaaS is popular but that better coordination and (probably) regulation is needed to maximise its effectiveness.