MEDIA COVERAGE

November 2024

TransportXtra: Transport Action Network will be in court requesting a judicial review of the National Networks National Policy Statement.

New Civil Engineer: NCE reveal £43m spent on Restoring Your Railway projects that face uncertainty following programme cancellation

inews: Fuel duty frozen for 13th year while rail fares go up.

CiTTi Magazine: Reactions to the budget.

October 2024

BBC: Update on A66 legal challenge.

Forbes: Money set aside for potholes in the budget is not enough to come close to clearing the backlog.

road.cc: Calls for active travel funding to be increased.

The Guardian: Decision on Lower Thames Crossing delayed, welcomed by campaigners.

New Civil Engineer: National Highways reported to the road regulator for “inappropriate attempts to influence the decision making process” concerning the Lower Thames Crossing Development Consent Order. Also reported by Construction Index.

The Express: Lower Thames Crossing is a “dinosaur scheme from another era that really should be extinct,” argues Dr Colin Black.

September 2024

The Guardian: Christian Wolmar makes the case for 16 road schemes to be axed, which we identified here. Also reported on by TransportXtra.

The Guardian: Laura Laker on Labour’s plan for buses.

Northern Echo: Rishi Sunak writes to Transport Secretary about A66 scheme.

TransportXtra: National Highways wasting taxpayers’ money to create “illusion of progress”, says Transport Action Network

The Guardian: Labour urged to cancel major road building schemes. Also reported on by New Civil Engineer,

August 2024

BBC Radio Cumbria: Chris Todd, Director of Transport Action Network, interviewed about the A66 road scheme and legal challenge.

BBC: MP for Penrith and Solway calls for A66 scheme to go ahead.

Highways Magazine: Louise Haigh doing a ‘proper review of all infrastructure’.

July 2024

New Civil Engineer: Local candidates oppose the Lower Thames Crossing.

Sussex Express: Decision to cancel A27 scheme welcomed.

June 2024

TransportXtra: The Department for Transport has published a modelling project which calculated how much funding was needed in order to meet active travel targets in England – five years after it was produced!

News and Star: Date for A66 legal challenge set.

Bunkerspot: Group of NGOs call on train and ferry companies to restore the London to Dublin Sail & Rail service.

LTT Magazine: White elephant road schemes should be axed.

May 2024

BBC: Transport Action Network launch legal challenge against £1.5bn A66 dualling scheme. Also reported in Construction Enquirer, Planning Resource, Cumbria Crack, Northern Echo, Ground Engineering, The Planner, North West Place, TransportXtra, and News and Star.

TransportXtra: High Court rules that the government’s climate strategy is not fit for purpose.

MotorTransport: The RHA call for the A66 upgrade to go ahead.

Highways Magazine: RIS3 and Lower Thames Crossing decisions put back following election announcement. Also reported in Construction News.

March 2024

The Guardian: Social Market Foundation analysis finds retaining the fuel duty cut benefits the wealthiest, saving them £60 a year, compared to £22 for those earning the least.

Highways Magazine: Revised National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS) put before Parliament by Transport Secretary.

The Times: Part of the M25 to close for roadworks during the day for the first time. Rebecca Lush, Transport Action Network roads campaigner, quoted to say: Widening the M25 is futile, as evidence shows it will just fill up again. The suggestion that building roads improves the environment is a laughable fantasy. You cannot replace veteran trees and ancient woodland with saplings, and most of the ones planted by National Highways die anyway.”

The Construction Index: Transport secretary Mark Harper has approved the £1.5bn A66 Northern Trans-Pennine scheme despite its benefit cost ratio (BCR) is just 0.90. Also reported in Ground Engineering.

inews: Roadworks and congestion lead to average motorway speeds getting slower for almost a decade. Chris Todd, Director of Transport Action Network, quoted: the country has “transport problems, not necessarily road problems.”

February 2024

The Guardian: Ambition, not policy shift, the reason why Low Traffic Neighbourhood applications were rejected. This was also covered in Road.cc.

The Construction Index: Investigation into National Highways’ performance opened by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

January 2024

The Guardian: documents uncovered by a legal challenge by us shows a shift in transport policy was influenced by fears about ‘15-minute cities’. This article was printed on page 10 in The Guardian newspaper on 11th January 2024. It was also covered in ENDS Report, Business Green, Road.cc, Highways Magazine, The Conversation, MotorTransport, and Camden New Journal.

TransportXtra: controversial road schemes that were set to be decided upon in the first few months of the year, including the A47 dualling, A303 Stonehenge Tunnel, and the Lower Thames Crossing.

The Guardian: Freedom of information requests by us revealed National Highways were being left to ‘mark their own homework’ by the Department for Transport for road schemes worth up to £500m.

DeSmog: Howard Cox, The Reform UK candidate for London Mayor joined rally against the ULEZ expansion. Chris Todd, Director of Transport Action Network is quoted: “Let’s be clear, people opposed to the London ULEZ are against cleaner air. They offer no solutions and don’t seem to care that people’s health is suffering from toxic pollution.”