As 2025 ends, I think it might be a good idea to produce a quick run-through of the things Labour hasn’t done on the transport front, and it’s quite a long list.
As I noted last week, promises that the first road safety strategy for a decade would be published by the end of the year have not been met.
There is no sign of a follow-up to the consultation on pavement parking, despite the (Tory) government consultation having closed five years ago.
In November 2024, the then transport secretary, Louise Haigh, set out the government’s vision for the first integrated national transport strategy in over two decades but it has failed to follow that through.
Ministers have given the Lower Thames Crossing planning permission but have yet to nail down how to pay for it and National Highways has a plan, but not the funding to begin to tackle road runoff.
On local roads, £2bn a year has been promised to fill and prevent potholes, but not yet.
Similarly, the legislation to create Great British railways has been introduced, but there is no target date for implementation, other than a statement that “GBR is expected to be operational around 12 months after the bill receives Royal Assent.”
On the other hand, there is some new branding.
Also on the trains, a programme to roll-out contactless payments in South East England beyond London is still some way behind where it should be and a target date to start services on the first bit of East West rail has been missed.
Finally, if we take at face value that ministers really, really want to publish those smart motorway POPE reports that the Department for Transport has been suppressing, as soon as they have a “comms handling plan”, they have failed to deliver that.
Alternatively, they are just happy for now to have swept the bad news under the carpet.
Transport Insights 
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