Transport Insights

The transport stories you won't see in the industry-friendly media

Author

Chris Ames

  • Greenwood sidelined as Lightwood takes roads brief

    Simon Lightwood has been made the new roads minister following the shambolic reshuffle that saw Lilian Greenwood removed from the Department for Transport (DfT) after showing too much enthusiasm for tackling pavement parking, before being partially re-instated.

    However, Greenwood will only be a part-time minister as she has another job in the Whips Office.

    It’s not clear what she will do at the DfT as it has still not bothered to tell the public which minister is responsible for which bit of transport policy. Lightwood is still listed on its website as minister for local transport, while Greenwood and new minister Keir Mather have no responsibilities or roles listed.

    Based on the announcements linked to him, Mather appears to have responsibility for maritime and aviation policy.

    I have previously noted Greenwoods clear statements (several months apart) to take action “very soon” on pavement parking and that a parliamentary answer from Lightwood suggested that he was in no hurry to do anything.

    Time will tell, but he may have been given the roads brief to take forward Labour’s Plan for Change by not changing very much.

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  • Exclusive: Second secretly shelved scheme surfaces

    I can exclusively reveal the other major scheme in the second road investment strategy (RIS 2) that ministers secretly pulled the plug on during the 2021 Spending Review.

    According to a November 2022 report from the National Audit Office:

    In February 2022, DfT formally notified National Highways that two projects on the watchlist had been deprioritised as an outcome of the 2021 Spending Review. These two projects remained in the portfolio awaiting a final decision on whether to proceed but their funding has been removed.

    The NAO revealed that one of these schemes was the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham scheme, which the company formally paused almost immediately, but it did not name the other scheme, which was also blacked out of all documents previously disclosed to me.

    Now the Department for Transport has told me that the second, previously unnamed scheme was the M25 Junctions 10-16.

    (more…)

  • Cadbury challenges minister to square the circle on aviation emissions

    The chair of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee has issued a statement that calls out a lot of the uncertainty and inconsistency in the government’s decision to approve Gatwick Airport’s expansion plans.

     Ruth Cadbury MP said:

    If the Government is determined to expand England’s airports, Gatwick’s second runway is among the lower hanging fruit.

    They continue to say they are committed to reducing carbon emissions, but we are waiting for them to show us how they will square the circle of doing so whilst enabling thousands more flights.

    (more…)

  • Please give the work experience lad something to do

    Note the big gap where his “Role” should be.

    source: Keir Mather MP – GOV.UK

  • Exclusive: National Highways aims for 10,000 more LEDs this year

    National Highways has told me that it is aiming to achieve the level of LED streetlight installation during the current year that would keep it (more or less) on track for one of its main decarbonisation targets.

    I wrote last week that the company installed 12,745 LED lights during 2024-25, in pursuit of a target of 70% LED street lighting by 2027 in its Net Zero Highways plan.

    An early upgrade on the M62, showing sodium (left) vs LED lights

    While this took it to 51%, compared to 40% a year earlier, which appears to be the rate of change required to hit the 2027 target, I noted that published documents are unclear about what will happen over the next two years.

    There is no mention of the issue in the company’s settlement for the current, interim year and the clearest commitment to taking it forward is an unquantified referent its delivery plan for the year to “delivering our LED lighting programme to support our carbon reduction commitments”.

    But a National Highways spokesperson has told me:

    We are committed to our target of ensuring 70 per cent of the road network is upgraded with LED lighting by 2027 and we are aiming to install a further 10,000 during 2025-26.

    However, upgrading LED lighting is dependent on a number of factors, including severe weather, the availability of road space/local highway diversion routes and the condition of the existing lighting assets on the network.

    (more…)

  • Reeves boosts climate change for a slogan

    The line from chancellor Rachel Reeves that the green light for more carbon emissions from Gatwick shows that the government is “backing the builders, not the blockers” tells you all you need to know about how serious a government this is.

    It is government by slogan and forget the climate emergency.

    On LinkedIn, Alex Chapman of the New Economics Foundation points out just how flimsy the economic case is, highlighting a section of the decision letter that shows that the socioeconomic case only provides a “moderate” case in favour of Gatwick’s plans to fly more people abroad to boost other countries’ economies.

    Chapman also points out that ministers are trashing their own climate plans:

    He concludes:

    Proceeding was the politically easiest option, but it was not responsible, nor was it evidence-based.

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  • No timetable for East West Rail

    Anyone planning to catch a train in the new-ish East West Rail line should not hold their breath as the only transport minister who is answering parliamentary questions on anything has declined to give a start date for any of its “connection stages”, including one that was scheduled to start this year.

    Layla Moran, LibDem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, put down a parliamentary question:

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she expects the first phase of East-West Rail to open this year; and what her Department’s planned timetable is for the opening of the (a) Bletchley to Bedford and (b) Bedford to Cambridge sections.

    Local transport minister Simon Lightwood’s reply was full of wishful thinking but without any firm timetable:

    The Department is working closely with Chiltern and other partners to confirm a start date for the service. We are looking forward to commencing services as soon as all necessary approvals and infrastructure are in place. Passenger services will commence once train testing and driver training have been completed. As for the second and third connections phases; the Government has committed to accelerating work to deliver EWR services between Oxford-Bedford. The full Oxford-Cambridge service is subject to an application for a Development Consent Order and is planned to commence from the mid-2030s.

    (more…)

  • DfT: National Highways was right to lie about shelved scheme

    The Department for Transport (DfT) has insisted that National Highways was right to put the the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham scheme in an annual delivery plan, despite the scheme being defunded and officially “paused”.

    Rather surprisingly, the department has stated that the formal pausing of the scheme was achieved through a “change control” document previously disclosed to me, despite that document explicitly stating that it would be dealt with a separate change control submissions,

    “the timing and communication of which will have to be carefully timed with any broader announcements in response to TSC or Union Connectivity reports and any DCO process considerations”.

    This quote indicates that National Highways intended to delay putting through the paperwork to hide the fact that the scheme had been secretly shelved, but the DfT has insisted that the document itself, which it approved, constituted “a change control submission to pause the scheme” and that this was approved.

    On this basis, I asked the DfT whether National Highways was correct to include the scheme in its 2022-23 delivery plan and correct to include it in its spending projections.

    (more…)

  • Another HIF scheme stalls as costs soar

    The BBC reports frustration from businesses around Junction 10 of the M5 over delays to the planned redevelopment of the junction, once again showing how the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) is struggling to keep up with rising construction costs.

    A Gloucestershire County Council “third party” scheme currently costing £363m aims to turn the Junction 10 into a conventional “all moves” junction, mainly to facilitate thousands of new homes in the Cheltenham area.

    The cost of the scheme has cost has risen by £70m since 2023, which a council report mainly attributes to delays, particularly in obtaining a development consent order, which transport secretary Heidi Alexander granted in June.

    At that time, the council said that “preparation works will begin this summer to enable the start of scheme construction from spring 2026, with completion anticipated in 2028”, but the council appears to be waiting for a £70m funding gap to be filled.

    A report to the council’s cabinet earlier this month noted that the previous £293m cost was to be met by £212m HIF grant funding “with the remaining £81m to be addressed by Section 106 contributions from developments that were dependent on the junction going ahead”.

    However, the need to underwrite the scheme with £40m in advance of these contributions increased the shortfall to £110m.

    Local councils are to cover £40m, with district councils contributing £20m Community Infrastructure Levy cash and Gloucestershire putting in £20m of its own.

    But this leaves the scheme dependent on a bid from the county to Homes England for a further £70m from HIF.

  • Could Lilian be the future of roads once…more?

    I’m not saying the government is disorganised of makes things up as it goes along, but former “future of roads” minister Lilian Greenwood has returned to the Department for Transport (DfT), just over a week after being moved.

    It appears that she will also be a government whip and her responsibilities at the DfT have not yet been officially confirmed on the department’s website.

    Neither have those of new minister Keir Mather, who appears to have maritime and aviation responsibilities.

    Greenwood’s return brings the department back up to its full complement of four junior ministers under transport secretary Heidi Alexander.

    Bizarre is not a strong enough word for such a turnaround.

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