Public Transport

The Five Principles for Good Public Transport — That Hardly Any System Meets

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) recently published a paper about building better public transport systems. Here are the key points.

Key Takeaways

• The paper offers 5 principles for better public transport:
  1. For everyone - Systems that remove physical, social, and economic barriers, enabling all users to travel with safety, dignity, and ease.
  2. Good service - Frequent, fast, and reliable transport that forms an integrated system that people can depend on every day.
     • Frequent Service means that the vehicle arrives at any stop every few minutes consistently throughout the day, including evenings and weekends.
     • Fast Service means that public transport vehicles maintain consistent speeds throughout their routes and minimise time lost in traffic, at intersections, or during boarding.
     • Reliable Service means that vehicles arrive when expected, following regular intervals or published timetables.
     • All of this is supported by dedicated bus lanes, real-time tracking systems, level boarding, accessible infrastructure, multimodal integration, updated real-time passenger information, and clear, inclusive communication tools.
  3. Zero-emissions - Fleets powered by clean energy and infrastructure aligned with climate and air-quality goals.
  4. Well-funded - Support systems’ consistent viability and responsiveness while continuing to expand and remaining affordable to users.
  5. Well-managed - Built on strong institutions, clear roles, technical expertise, good coordination, and mandates that support planning, oversight, service delivery, and accountability. Including:
     • Overseeing day-to-day operations and service quality.
     • Designing and adjusting routes, schedules, and service integration.
     • Coordinating services across jurisdictions and harmonising fares.
     • Defining legal and regulatory frameworks, vehicle standards, and procurement rules.
     • Providing funding and financial oversight.
     • Supporting institutional capacity-building and data systems.

Comment

This list states the obvious. But how many public transport systems do all of the above well? The answer is very, very few. Even systems that have been used as global exemplars face challenges. For example, Vienna has recently increased fares by 26% amid a funding crisis, and Hong Kong's new transport strategy appears to be orienting towards the motor vehicle.

What Next?

Do you know what weaknesses your public transport has, and do you have plans to address them?

Governance

Why Britain's Public Transport Fails Outside London

Outside of London, Britain's public transport is often poor. This report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) looks at what is going wrong and how it can be fixed.

Key Takeaways

• Investment in public transport in cities is constrained by how decisions are made at the national level.
• Transport investment must move beyond centralised approval for individual projects and towards a place-based, delivery-focused model.
• That means aligning the Treasury, planning policy and sustainable local finance to drive the development of high-quality public transport.
• Road schemes generally perform well under current appraisal and forecasting frameworks because they produce large, measurable effects such as travel-time savings and reduced congestion.
• By contrast, many non-road transport investments deliver their value through accessibility, land use and the organisation of economic activity rather than marginal journey-time improvements.
• Reform is needed in three areas:
  1. How the growth impacts of transport investment are understood.
  2. The role of the national government in enabling and coordinating delivery.
  3. The powers and financial tools required for regional leaders to deliver public transport projects.
• Recommendations:
  • Within its existing standards of evidence, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) should explore ways to recognise a wider range of credible long-term productivity impacts from transport investment in its fiscal forecasts.
  • Land-use change towards articulated density should be considered a proxy for the transformational potential of a transport proposal.
  • Transport investment from the Department for Transport (DfT) should play a redistributive role across the UK.
  • The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) should play a role in addressing skills and knowledge gaps across the UK.
  • Mayors should be granted powers to approve Transport and Works Act Orders for wholly local projects.
  • Mayors should have guaranteed revenue streams to borrow against, and revenue-raising powers to capture the local benefits of the investment.

Comment

The UK's business case appraisal framework is often seen internationally as highly sophisticated. However, within the UK, it has been highly criticised for favouring projects in London and the South East.

The fact that the appraisal still favours road building (failing to account for induced demand adequately) is also a red flag.

Public transport governance is not just a UK problem. Countries with good public transport outside their major cities tend to have powerful local political actors able to lead, approve and finance projects. Where decision-making is far away from local people, public transport often suffers.

What Next?

How good is your governance for progressing public transport projects? How can you improve?

Accessibility

Left Behind on the Road to Net Zero: Disabled People and Sustainable Transport

The Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) has produced a report into how well the development of sustainable transport initiatives meets the needs of disabled people in the UK.

Key Takeaways

• Accessibility is still regularly omitted from the development of sustainable transport initiatives. The report calls this eco-ableism.
• The report combined a survey of 531 disabled people and a focus group to understand the impact of national and local policies on disabled people’s experiences of sustainable transport.
• Across the research, several key findings emerged:
  • Pavements and streets are a critical barrier, including poor maintenance of pavements, missing or poorly designed dropped kerbs, and clutter and obstructions.
  • Cycling and micromobility remain inaccessible due to vehicle designs, inadequate parking for adaptive cycles, and unsafe or missing infrastructure.
  • Bus and coach accessibility is inconsistent, including unreliable ramps, limited wheelchair space, inaccessible bus stops, attitudes of other passengers and inconsistent driver training.
  • Rail is the most accessible mode, but key barriers to increasing use remain, including inaccessible ticketing, unreliable lifts, inconsistent station accessibility and inaccessible train carriages.
  • Community transport is shrinking despite being essential for many.
  • There remains a critical gap in understanding and addressing the barriers faced by those with non-visible impairments, including those with dexterity impairment, stamina-related conditions, mental health conditions, bladder or bowel conditions, and neurodivergence.
• An approach driven by meaningful engagement with disabled people, that embeds accessibility as a core principle of sustainable transport, is the way to achieve a just transition to net zero.

Comment

Although this is a report from the UK, I expect many of the findings would apply in many jurisdictions.

I wrote a blog post about the limitations of our accessibility approach here and how we are overspending on expensive rail retrofits at the expense of small, system-wide improvements that would deliver significantly greater accessibility gains.

What Next?

How accessible is your active and public transport infrastructure and systems?

Quick Adventures in Transport Wonderland

Here is what else I came across this week:

• ​Why Milton Keynes is a triumph of Vision-Led Transport Planning​
• ​Why Our Streets Are Failing Kids – And How to Fix It​
• ​This Is The Real Reason We Can't Have The Cities We Dream Of​

Podcast

High-Speed Rail (From the Archives)

The Australian Prime Minister is about to announce the next steps for high-speed rail in the country.

My co-host, Graham McCabe, and I are both big fans of high-speed rail in other countries, but we are very sceptical about this plan. Find out why when we discussed it on our podcast last year.

You can watch it here or listen here.

Innovation

Atlanta Pilot for New Automated Public Transit System

Many concepts are flying around for autonomous pod public transport. This pilot might provide some interesting insights.

Before you go: Here's how I can help

Working through a transport policy challenge?

I offer consulting, coaching, and training services to help you navigate complex decisions, build stakeholder support, and implement effective solutions.

Whether you need strategic guidance on a specific policy, want to develop your team's capabilities, or are looking for expert analysis, I'd be glad to discuss how I can support your work.

Get in touch at russell@transportlc.org