The consequence was a planning requirement for all new large-scale housing and commercial developments to be either located around rail hubs or served by light rail or electric bus routes.
Transport and land-use planning were firmly integrated after decades of intent and little action. And the long-standing Japanese policy of focusing around stations a range of public services - such as doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries, children’s nurseries and libraries - was adopted, to reinforce the value of public transport hubs.
This was complemented by adopting the Swiss policy of creating multi-mode hubs at stations.
The re-regulation of buses enabled bus routes to be focused on stations, with services timed to dovetail with train times. The Swiss Taktfahrplan of regular interval services every 60, 30 or 15 minutes was adopted (noting the Swiss experience of rail patronage jumping by 129% within four years when Zürich’s S-Bahn was created). E-bike charging points far outnumbered those for cars at stations, and few large stations were without a bike servicing facility.
Stations were enhanced by borrowing another idea from Switzerland: convenience stores which also provided travel information. They became as common as filling station forecourt shops and added a further sense of security at stations. And better place-making in and around stations attracted more people, with some offering cafes and even restaurants that attracted non-rail-users.
Larger stopping points copied the Louvre metro station in Paris and Gloucester Road in London, in creating space for the display of artwork or artefacts from local museums that reflected the history of the area.
The 2022 pioneering family lounge at King’s Cross, complete with Hornby model railway, was followed by others at main stations to cater for the growing numbers of families attracted by fares reform.
For urban areas, people saw the many benefits that followed from greater use of public transport and active travel - cleaner air, and more sociable and welcoming spaces as pedestrianisation was extended. People also recognised the value of active travel and public transport in fostering a sense of community through greater social interaction.
RAIL REORGANISATION
Implementation of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail and the creation of English Railways took much longer than anticipated, thanks to deflected government attention following the debacle of Liz Truss’s few weeks in power.
The change of name from Great British Railways reflected the distinct and more progressive policies that the devolved assemblies in Wales and Scotland had developed, and their desire for separate identities. Scotland retained ScotRail and Wales adopted Welsh Railways (WR) for services within the country.
In England, the ‘guiding mind’ created a framework that allowed regional and local decisions on investment and operations to be taken much more expeditiously. This recognised the desire of Combined Authorities and progressive county councils such as Cornwall and Devon to have greater control over transport.
With the Rail Safety and Standards Board, English Railways (ER) had oversight of industry standards, technology, and train specification and orders, putting an end to the economic and environmental waste of trains barely a decade old being sent for scrap. The art of cascading returned. Most importantly, costs and revenue were brought together within ER, WR and ScotRail.
Private sector involvement was retained, with concession agreements (determined by ER) replacing franchises. The agreements had an escalating incentive for passenger growth, and payments that reflected a range of qualitative standards - some based on Transport Focus research and survey results.
The most contentious issue of the 2020s was HS2. But efforts to halt construction after the Truss financial crisis were roundly rejected, given the need for greater capacity.
This was vindicated by the huge increases in demand, following taxation of aviation fuel and higher air passenger duty (reversing the illogical and unnecessary cut to the latter on domestic flights by Rishi Sunak in 2022).
Following the example of France, it was agreed that internal journeys which could be done by train should not be made by air. HS2’s western arm eventually reached Preston, and political pressure forced the reinstatement of a revised eastern arm as far as Leeds.
Diesel trains were eliminated from 2037, three years ahead of the target of 2040 set in 2018 by Jo Johnson (brother of Boris - remember him?), thanks to an accelerated programme of electrification that provided certainty for rail industry suppliers. Per km wiring costs were reduced to those of Germany (they had been up to four times higher in the first two decades of the century).
Rapid advances in batteries eclipsed hydrogen experiments for trains on secondary lines and the last-mile requirement for electric freight locomotives. Even this was soon rendered unnecessary by the rollout of Furrer+Frey’s retractable catenary.
Although leisure became the main reason for rail journeys, commuting and business travel by train recovered more quickly than many had anticipated. Behind the return of commuters were the rising costs of heating a home office, the value of employees being ‘visible’ to their employers, and our natural gregariousness.
LEISURE TRAVEL
Introduction of the four-day week in 2032, and greater job-sharing as AI (artificial intelligence) reduced the level of job vacancies, accelerated the growing leisure segment of train journeys.
Even before then, residents of some popular holiday destinations had become so fed up with gridlocked tourist traffic that councils restricted car-borne access to residents and blue-badge holders. Cameras on access roads registered residents’ permits and badges, and sent stiff fines to anyone ignoring the prohibition.
St Ives, with its narrow streets, was one of the first resorts to ban trips by car, and the Cornish town’s pioneering park-and-ride scheme - first at Lelant Saltings and then at St Erth - became a model for other resorts. Small electric luggage taxis, based on those used in car-free Zermatt, meet trains.
Similar rural areas made up of narrow lanes wholly unsuited to holiday traffic, such as many coastal stretches of Devon and Cornwall, created bus links and park-and-ride facilities (wherever feasible) from a railway station.
Some of the congested single-track roads to National Trust beaches, such as Porthcurno and Cape Cornwall, were closed to non-residents and freed up for a frequent Land’s End Coaster bus service from Penzance, building on the excellent work of Transport for Cornwall.
But most challenging of all leisure destinations were the National Parks. Some had become so clogged with traffic, especially on Bank Holiday weekends, that it was recognised that drastic action was needed to preserve the very qualities that people came to enjoy.
The Sandford principle - that where there is conflict between a National Park’s dual functions of conservation and promoting public enjoyment, then greater weight must be given to conservation - had been enshrined in the 1995 Environment Act.
National Park authorities consequently limited car access to residents, people staying overnight, and those with a blue badge - using similar hardware to resorts to enforce the regulations.
Predictably, there were howls of protest from the motoring lobby, who saw this as an outrageous infringement of the freedom to drive wherever and whenever they wanted.
