Transport User Voice June 2025 – Chief Executive’s editorial

17 June 2025

Influencing change makers

When I studied Social Policy and Administration, one of the modules I took was on how social change is achieved. It was a long time ago, but I remember hoping that I’d hear the answer and instead concluding that no one knew. It was all a bit messy and surely it would depend on the issue. I’m not sure I’m any wiser twenty-five years later, but it’s still the question I keep asking myself and it’s relevant to us at Transport Focus.

Our mission is to achieve positive change for transport users and because we don’t directly deliver any services success is determined by our ability to influence others.

There are many ways we can help. League tables can encourage operators to focus on what matters most to users – check out the latest rail scorecards. On other occasions we’ll bring people together to agree a way forward as we’ve done recently on rest-stops for lorry drivers.

Sometimes it’s about getting under the skin of an issue and identifying practical solutions, as we did with Great Western Railway to improve their communication during disruption at Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads. What works depends on the issue and we need to keep asking ourselves if what we’re doing is making a difference, hard as that sometimes is to tell.

If something improves was it because of us or would it have happened anyway?

The important thing is to keep being curious and adjust to what we see around us. This brings me to the Your Bus Journey seminar for transport authorities which I dropped into earlier this month and that’s mentioned in this newsletter.

The excellent presentations from East Sussex County Council, Nottingham City Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority prompted a great deal of engagement. What I was struck by was the honesty with which presenters answered questions and that the audience valued practical tips from people facing the same challenges as they were. There’s a real market for that now across the country. Practical advice and examples from the front-line. Not flashy presentations and people showing-off what they’ve done.

The number one thing for bus passengers is reliability and we’re thinking about how we can share good practice on that.

We live in the real world where money is tight and implementing solutions locally can be difficult. What interventions are the most cost-effective and how can transport authorities of different sizes and capabilities work more effectively to deliver for passengers?

We’re getting our hands dirty trying to understand that better and sharing whatever we can that will lead to positive change.

Look out for more on this in the coming months.

Enjoy the read.

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