Northern Lights: ​Publicly-owned public transport is on its way

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Public transportation in the UK is on track for a better, brighter future. My thanks to Louise Haigh MP for propelling us all forwards.

When I consider the future that I hope we will reach, I usually think in terms of public transport. And when I think of the future of public transport I imagine trains and trams – green, frequent, fast – and buses – electrified, plentiful, free.

It's a rare thing in politics to see a seismic shift happen - and a strange thing to see that go so unremarked.

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But that’s what’s happened since the General Election, with the ground lain for a public transport revolution, capable of delivering that hope for better public transportation.

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Sheffield buses

In September 2024 the Department for Transport set about creating Great British Railways, in preparation for all train-operating companies to be taken into public ownership as soon as their contracts expire. Anyone who has used the railways recently will know the significance of this – our expensive, frequently-late and infrequently-run trains make a joke of our status as the birthplace of modern railways.

Public ownership brings with it the means to deliver a more regular and reliable service that prioritises commuters and communities over private shareholders, by ensuring profits are reinvested into improving the service and creating new routes.

To me an even bigger – and even less remarked-upon – change is the lifting of the ban on councils setting up municipal bus companies. That “bus revolution” recognised the vital role local people should play in delivering bus services and means that councils and Mayors can now use public transport as a lever to bolster struggling local economies.

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The significance of this won’t be lost on anyone who remembers what South Yorkshire’s buses were once like. Subsidised 10p and 2p fares made us the envy of the country.

That ended in 1989 with the Thatcher government forcibly privatising South Yorkshire Transport, making an example of a council that proudly flew the red flag, and which delivered progressive political change for local people.

Both changes being brought in – Great British Railways and the re-introduction of council bus companies – are policies which will reverberate for decades to come. They could act as anchors for the new government to reverse the Beeching cuts, and enable any council to incubate and grow new transport links.

Louise Haigh, Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley and until recently Secretary of State for Transport, was the architect of both changes. With a national political and media context that is hostile to public ownership it will have been no mean feat to make the case for both policies, and defend them in Cabinet meetings, but the whole country is going to benefit as a result of those efforts.

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That’s why it’s a real tragedy that Louise isn’t continuing in her role as Transport Secretary. In the few months since the General Election she managed to set not only her Department but the entire country on track for a greener, brighter future.

I was really sorry to see her leave the frontbench as I know there is far more she could – and still has to – offer the nation.

From my own involvement in politics I know that it is too often cut-throat and bruising, with no-one on hand to praise when things are going well, and many ready to pounce if things don’t.

But I also know Sheffield to be a far better and far kinder place than the Palace of Westminster, and I know fellow Sheffielders will join me in thanking Louise for the brilliant accomplishments she achieved as Secretary of State.

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And in years to come, when our publicly-owned buses, trams, and trains have supported our transition to net zero – and when we can travel home at night without needing a taxi! – we will have Louise to thank for taking that brave first step to ensure our public transportation is truly public.

The foundations have been laid, and it’s on all of us to ensure the public transport revolution continues at pace.

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