Blog ARCHIVE
Large road schemes in the Transport Infrastructure Review
On 30 July 2024, the Transport Secretary Louise Haigh announced a Transport Infrastructure Review. This will include all road schemes in National Highways' roads programme, many of which are unaffordable and outdated, trying to solve 20th century problems. The funding would be better used for vital rail freight, public transport...
Filling the holes
Rachel Reeves might have a huge hole in the country’s finances to plug, but road users are rightly concerned about the large number of potholes that need filling. The latest findings from the RAC’s annual survey shows that the majority of drivers are fed up with the state of Britain's...
Lower Thames Crossing Myths and Facts
(click on a Myth to take you to more detailed evidence below) MythsFactsIt would relieve traffic at the Dartford Crossing by 20%Any reduction in traffic at Dartford would still leave it over capacity - 20% is a meaningless figure. In nearly all instances any relief would last for less time...
Pause on unaffordable road schemes welcomed
Pause on unaffordable road schemes welcomed Transport Action Network (TAN) [1] is welcoming the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves’ likely announcement this afternoon to pause a number of large road schemes due to a lack of funding [2]. Reeves is quite correct to seize control of spending on unaffordable major road projects...
King’s Speech Analysis
Labour has hit the ground running since the election in July. Forty Bills were announced in the first Kings Speech of this Parliament, setting a challenging timetable. It will be interesting to see whether the new Government can keep up this pace and deliver. In terms of surface transport, there...
Bridge infill scandals
When British Rail was broken up for privatisation, its assets were dispersed amongst various players in the rail industry or flogged off, often with little thought to their wider value or importance. For some bizarre reason National Highways, a company solely focussed on maintaining and developing the strategic roads network,...
Healthy travel is good for wildlife
This blog is part of our healthy travel choices series. Previously, we looked at road safety and giving children more freedom. Here, we are focusing on how healthy travel helps wildlife. This is very timely given the Restore Nature Now march on 22 June in London and elsewhere around the...
Comparing Party Manifestos on Transport
In this blog, we try to look under the skin of each party’s manifesto to work out what they are really saying while comparing them where we can to the other parties. While there are some expected differences such as on road building, there is a surprising amount of commonality...
Plan for Drivers revelations
From active travel to backing drivers With Conservatives announcing a “Backing Drivers Bill”, it’s time to shed light on how ministers went from strong support of healthy travel to hindering it in a matter of months. While excerpts of these ministerial briefings have been quoted in the media, they have...
Cancelling white elephant road scheme would release billions
Cancelling white elephant road scheme would release billions Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced on Friday [1] that he was extending the deadline to make a decision on the Lower Thames Crossing to 4 October. This was to enable a new Government to have the time to fully consider the application....
Road Investment Strategy must prioritise maintenance, not new roads
Road Investment Strategy must prioritise maintenance, not new roads The Department for Transport’s (DfT) is expected to publish this week its draft third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), setting out priorities and an outline budget for National Highways for 2025-2030. Transport Action Network (TAN) has called for the draft RIS3 to...
Rishi’s Road to Ruin
This Conservative Government seems determined to leave the country far worse than it found it and to tie the hands of the next Government as much as it can. This year we will, more than likely, have a general election and have our say at the ballot box. In the...
Statement on A66 Northern Trans Pennine Legal Challenge
Statement on A66 Northern Trans Pennine Legal Challenge Transport Action Network (TAN) has launched a legal challenge to the granting of a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the £1.5 billion A66 Northern Trans-Pennine road scheme. It believes that the Secretary of State's decision was flawed. Chris Todd, TAN’s founder and...
Labour’s rail reforms could get us back on track
Last week saw the Labour Party start to set out its stall for transport should it be elected as the next Government, when it published Get Britain Moving: Labour’s plan to fix Britain’s railways. This is quite a significant development as to date Labour has been very cautious about what...
Labour rail reforms could get us back on track
Labour rail reforms could get us back on track Transport Action Network (TAN) is broadly welcoming Labour’s announcements yesterday about rail reform and better integration with other transport modes [1]. Chris Todd, director of Transport Action Network (TAN) said: “These proposed reforms are a major step in the right direction....
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