Transport User Voice – October 2022 – Chief executive’s editorial

29 September 2022

A royal goodbye

The past few weeks have been dominated by the extraordinary events surrounding the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The transport industry did well throughout this period, enabling millions to move around the country to see events and pay their respects. The problems with services out of Paddington on the Monday of the funeral were grim for those caught up in it but overall it was a positive story. Never have so many queued! Interesting lessons in there on queue management – information is key.

While we wait to see how the new Government is going to approach key spending, reform, green and transport issues we are getting on with making sure the user voice is heard. We look forward to working with the new Secretary of State, Anne Marie-Trevelyn and the wider transport team.

Our new insight report on user priorities for the next five year Road Investment Strategy (‘RIS’) from 2025 to 2030 will be out soon. It is more important than ever that Government and private sector money is spent on the things that will bring the most benefit to users and we can really help with that.

The new Your Bus Journey survey is now ready to be rolled out. We are having discussions with scores of local authorities and bus companies about setting it up in their areas. With more money being spent on bus again it is really important the impact of that spend is measured and benchmarked around the country.

On rail, strikes and labour issues continue to bedevil the industry. Avanti has published its recovery plan; now it has to stick to it. And it has become increasingly hard to source rail replacement buses during engineering works. All of these risk undermining passenger confidence.

 

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