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This section is updated monthly.
by Andrew Forster, December 2009
a Local Transport Today editorial, reproduced with permission
At the beginning of December, the Department for Transport announced it was endorsing, and largely sponsoring, nearly four dozen regional transport studies around the country, of which the North West will be getting its share. This was in addition to 10 national studies announced in October. All the studies are part of the 'Delivering a Sustainable Transport System' (DaSTS) programme and are intended to help inform government spending decisions from 2014 onwards. 'Local Transport Today' reported on the DfT's actions in its Issue 534 (4 Dec - 17 Dec, 2009) and editor, Andrew Forster, used his editorial column in that edition to express the thoughts of many transport professionals. This is what he had to say:
Those who think that governments spend too much time and resource studying problems and not enough time actually fixing them will find evidence to bolster their views in this week's issue [of Local Transport Today]. As we report on page 4, the DfT has just announced details of 45 new regional transport studies1 to be conducted across England as part of the Delivering a Sustainable Transport Strategy (DaSTS) agenda. The cost of this programme is £16m. over two years and is in addition to plans for ten studies of national transport corridors2 that were published last month. But alongside the announcement of more studies comes the news that the Treasury has put the brakes on two projects to deliver practical actions on the ground: the £29m. sustainable travel cities behavioural change project and the £25m. Kickstart programme to enhance bus services3.
There is no doubt a very good logic to why the DfT can go ahead with £16m. plus of new studies but is being prevented from delivering a £54m. programme of transport improvements. But, to many outsiders, it will seem a little strange. Hopefully, the Treasury's block on funding the projects is only temporary; all may become clear after next week's pre-Budget report.
As for the new transport studies, it is tempting to ask whether now is really the wisest of times to be launching a major programme of futurology. A General Election looms and with it may come a new Government with new priorities. Perhaps sensibly, the Department has built into each study a break point next spring which could allow the new ministerial team to review progress and future direction.
The big question is how the studies will address future funding availability. Studies have a tendency to fuel participants' aspirations rather than to dampen them and it will be interesting to see how the DfT manages down expectations. The Department's explanation for why it refused to fund the Leeds-Scarborough study - partly because the proposers seemed to want to justify expensive road improvements - suggests a discipline that was arguably lacking from the multi-modal studies programme of ten years' ago.
2. Two of the national studies impinge on the North West:
As of the beginning of December it was unknown whether or not there would be any environmental NGO/ sustainable transport representation on the national DaSTS studies.
3. Bids for the £25m. Kickstart initiative, to fund new or enhanced frequency bus services, were invited by the DfT in January and in the summer the West Midlands, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and Nottingham were shortlisted to receive a share of the £29m. sustainable travel cities cash to promote policies to reduce car use. However, LTT reported in the same edition as the 'Study of Inaction' editorial that these initiatives were being reviewed and that both were likely to fall victim to government spending cuts.
