2013 Budget reveals public sector ready to invest in transport but it'll have to compete against other priorities

The budget injected an additional £15bn worth on investment into the UK’s infrastructure across five years starting in 2015-16; which would mean that the average spend on infrastructure investment up to 2020 would be £35bn per year. The extra funding will help speed up the delivery the 40 top priority project within the UK infrastructure plan, and the additional funding will be used to aid the completion of developments at King’s Cross Station and eight Highways Authority Projects. In total an extra £18bn will be spent on road and rail projects by the end of the next government. This does offer ICT vendors opportunities connected to expanding both heavy and light rail networks, delivering opportunities within the ticketing and smart travel technologies space; and future road management technology contracts, to make best use of ICT to limit the impacts of current and future congestion.

Certainly increased investment into roads – for those within the transport space is good news. Current initiatives, such as CHARM by the Highways Agency and the Dutch counterparts will make it easier for non-specialist firms to move into this space particularly with reforms to the supply chain and the introduction of ever more advanced intelligent transport systems. However, the £15bn worth infrastructure investment will have competing priorities, which risks high profile transport technology led plans being sidelined. As the UK approaches an energy cliff – it is unclear whether much of announced extra infrastructure investment will actually be used to support the UK’s energy needs. Elsewhere in government today, plans for a new nuclear power plant at Hinckley were announced providing energy for 5m homes. The cost of this site is £14bn, which although not connected to the budget funding – does show that you wouldn’t get much change, if the Chancellor’s extra funding is used to invest in energy projects; twinned with pressures from the cost of large transport programmes on the horizon, for example High Speed 2.

Outside of strategic infrastructure, the budget also supported some many of the suggestions made in Lord Hestletine’s ‘No Stone Unturned’ plan to strength the UK’s economy at a regional level. This includes a Single Local Growth Fund to be competed for by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), although the “lowish billions” confirmed for the fund will be far less than the £50bn mooted in the report. These funds will be available for innovative projects connected to skills, housing and transport. Once this will lead to competing priorities – however, one suspects like the funds winnable by local authorities under the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) that the pot will encourage intelligent travel solutions, which bodes well for ICT vendors in this market.

Council's tender for passenger information shows opportunities (and problems) with government policy concerning local transport

Last week’s tender for a RTPI framework for Staffordshire, highlights the DFT’s drive to localise the provision of England’s transport funding. RTPI formed a key element of Staffordshire’s successful LocalSustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) bid. Jointly funded by the council and Arriva, along with some of the £4.2m awarded through the LSTF from government; a comprehensive RTPI system is planned to be in place across the county by March 2014. Although there has been some disagreement over boundaries of the proposed Local Transport Bodies (LTB) in the region, the framework’s upper value reflects that the Staffordshire’s LTB partner Stoke-on-Trent could utilise a common system.

This is likely to be bad news for Staffordshire’s incumbent supplier, JMW Consultants who are currently contracted to deliver provision, installation and maintenance of a bus timetable passenger information system for the county. The incumbent’s contract began September 2010 and was  valued up £1m and did have an additional year extension available over the initial three year length; however with LTBs beginning to work in shadow form, a wider system covered in the tender shows how LTBs will allow savings through joint procurement, as well as offering more attractive opportunity to vendors outside of the niche market.

The surprisingly non committal nature with regards to Stoke-on-Trent reflects that the DFT is not happy with the proposed boundaries of the LTB; and shows that government is not yet willing to totally lose control of transport funding and projects, given it can be a vote winning policy. This is the same barrier which has put the brakes on GOCO arrangement’s for the Highways Agency Area Management as recommended under the Cook report.     

Upcoming report: UK transport manifesto

Whilst I was less successful in publishing my report on the bus market regarding BQCs, what I think will be a useful document is my 'manifesto' for UK transport. The short document will cover what is a achievable and would make a real difference by UK transport taking into account what is realistic bith with regards to government and technology. I'll also attempt to be as impartial as possible and cover all modes.

Oyster technology ready for part-time travel cards: If only businesses were encouraged by government to allow homeworking

Submitted this as a letter regarding news that 'Part-time travelcards would ease Tube overcrowding, say Tories' in the Evening Standard on Tuesday 5 March 2013, wasn't published so I'll share my thoughts here!

Even leading technology companies like Google and Yahoo are uncomfortable with home working which makes it difficult for passengers to change to non-traditional working hours or practises if they are not allowed to do this by their employers. TFL leads the world on ticketing and news that systems will be able accommodate part-time travelcards this proves how visionary the organisation is. As noted by Shasi Verma, the move to using contactless bankcards to pay for fares under Project Electra will allow users to be fairly charged for their actual usage.

The lesson from the Olympics, other that repeatedly drumming into passengers that their journeys will be hellish actually makes people stay at home, which is unfair on the massive amount of work that went into public transport management during the games. Was that engaging with companies to make them realise that their business will be affected by acute congestion meant that changing working patterns for their staff helped them better manage the adverse affect on their business.

I’d echo the calls of by business leaders from London First; giving the assembly control of the capitals funding would not only improve investment but also allow for a comprehensive system of tax relief for companies encouraging firms to permit home working to relieve congestion. This would not only includes times of intensive congestion whether it be during works or major events, but also generally reward positive attitudes to home working.