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Are Trams Socialist?: Why Britain Has No Transport Policy (Perspectives)
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Transport is key to our daily lives. The transport system is essential to ensure the movement of people and goods, and most of us will use the roads or public transport every day. Vast sums are tied up in it and are spent on trying to resolve the problems of congestion and delays. And yet it is a most neglected field of politics. Britain has never had a coherent transport policy. Transport ministers are regarded as minnows compared with their big beast colleagues in other ministries. Successive governments have barely attempted to get to grips with the challenge of getting people around efficiently and safely while limiting the environmental damage caused by transport. In this entertaining polemic, Christian Wolmar, an author and journalist who has written about transport for over two decades, explains why politicians have not addressed the crucial issue of balancing transport needs with environmental considerations. Instead, they have been seduced by the popularity of the car and pressure from the car lobby, and they have been sidetracked by dogma. Solutions are at hand and successful examples can be seen elsewhere in Europe but courage and clear thinking are needed if they are to be implemented.
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Additional information
| Publisher | London Publishing Partnership (22 April 2016) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 128 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1907994564 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1907994562 |
| Dimensions | 13.31 x 1.17 x 19.84 cm |
by R Rai
Despite transport services being used on a daily basis by almost every member of the public, transport policy – unlike health and education – remains a niche and often neglected area with little public discussion. If the Home Office is seen as the graveyard of politicians then the transport ministry is probably more like purgatory – an intermediate resting place for promising careers that have now died. Refreshingly, Christian Wolmar brings a passion to the topic in this succinct overview of the evolution and present day issues with transport policy in the UK.
Wolmar’s other works have often been passionate polemics on deeply emotive issues within the sector – including the privatisation of the rail network in “On the Wrong Line”. Are Trams Socialist however, is a more neatly trimmed account on the wider shortcomings of UK transport policy as a whole.
Wolmar bemoans the lack of an integrated and multi-modal transport strategy from central government and the parochial nature of its cost-benefit analysis processes for sifting schemes. The critical problem of chronic congestion in urban areas arose from the short-sighted focus on the motor car during the middle of the 20th century and for a while led to the falling patronage of public transport. The emphasis on expensive “grand projets” such as HS2 is criticised while the benefits of more localised, inexpensive and environmentally sustainable transport schemes including trams, cycling and walking are highlighted.
He also gives an account of the failings of the institutional architecture that give rise to this incoherence including the lack of joined up thinking within the different divisions of the Department for Transport looking after separate modes (brilliantly satirised in Yes Minister – see the “Planes, trains and boats” clip on youtube); as well as the emphasis on competition (and privitisation) as opposed to cooperation within the sector. The role of new technology including driverless cars – which is often seen as a deus ex machina – is questioned; namely many of the benefits will take decades to achieve, will more likely be incremental and may actually exacerbate existing problems on the network including congestion.
Wolmar’s prescribed solutions include road user charging to better reflect the external costs of driving and setting out coherent priorities for the public transport network to boost patronage. The comparison of the trajectory of transport in the UK to those of other countries is one of the most eye-opening and interesting examples of the book.
These are all valid criticisms and well summarised in such a short text. However, more empirical evidence to underpin the arguments would be welcome. Instead of just criticising HS2 it would also be worth highlighting the significant opportunity that cross-party consensus across both central and local government provides in terms of joining up national planning for HS2 stations with local authority objectives for boosting connectivity to those stations. There is also little on how transport fits into wider economic planning – particularly housing where increasingly many large scale developments are helping inject well needed private sector funding into transport schemes. The prescribed solutions such as road user charging are very likely to be politically unpalatable and more realistic policy suggestions could have been proposed including improving the provision of “mobility as a service” and associated information technologies to aid individual user choice and facilitate demand management.
by jpm
Something of an inconclusive potboiler
by Steve Kirby
Surprisingly short book, given the subject.
But it is thorough and puts our shambolic railway/transport politics into perspective with the rest of Europe
by Amazon Customer
An excellent review of the evolution of UK transport and transport policy. Well worth a read for anyone with a general interest on public policy and/or transportation systems.
by Bob McLellan
Very few trams
by Darren
An interesting ponderation.
by Rob
Not as interesting as I expected – I’m familiar with Wolmar’s work and expected more.
by B. A. Smith
A very worthwhile look at how transport could be greatly improved in the UK, and, equally importantly, why, to date there have not been the fundamental reforms required to achieve those improvements.
And, for once, a Kindle book not riddled with mispronts (sic) and typos. This alone is a recommendation to read it!