Integration through devolution

Better Connected, the government’s new Integrated Transport Strategy is modally agnostic, addressing transport networks and infrastructure as a whole. Instead of looking at different modes individually, Better Connected places significant emphasis on the interfaces between multiple modes – asking how they can be improved where they already exist, and how they can be created where they don’t.

The emphasis on physical multi-modal connectivity is reflected in the strategy’s fare and ticketing requirements, which seek integrated ticketing allowing passengers to use a single payment method across multiple modes and operators.  

Allied to this, and a further step towards modally agnostic infrastructure planning, the strategy also envisages strengthening statutory guidance for local transport authorities, giving the planning, maintenance and management of pavements and cycle paths the same priority as road infrastructure.

This is joined-up thinking, literally; so the subtext for infrastructure providers, similarly, is to start thinking less in terms of creating or enhancing individual assets and more about how the infrastructure projects we deliver interact and connect with one-another to provide a seamless user experience.

A clear objective of Better Connected was the need to increase the number of step-free railway stations through the Access for All (AfA) programme. Improving accessibility to rail services has to be a good thing, although it is not immediately clear if the call for the increase represents additional investment, or refers to the existing ambition of the revised AfA programme outlined last autumn. Either way, the challenge for those who operate and maintain the network should be predicated on ensuring the expertise of those who have been pivotal to delivering the existing AfA programme is harnessed to help deliver any enhanced volumes and future efficiencies.

Core to Better Connected is a development Octavius teams are already seeing take hold: the increasing importance of combined authorities and city/region mayors in leading the development and implementation of transport strategy. Enabling new housing developments, accessibility, and interconnected modally agnostic networks is already central to most combined authorities’ transport strategies, and Better Connected consistently frames these increasingly influential stakeholders as the future backbone of integrated transport – with powers over planning, funding, buses, roads and increasingly rail – while central government shifts toward enabling, funding and setting outcomes rather than directing delivery.

In summary, Better Connected provides further assurance of government’s vision for delivering the next generation of transport infrastructure in a more holistic fashion than in the past. The challenge now is to work with industry to accelerate its implementation.

This article was originally published in the May edition of the CIHT’s Transportation Professional.