Member News
21st September 2012Transport is quite often a victim of the 'short-termist' span of British political life, according to Transport Hub.
The Prime Minister's decision to replace Justine Greening with Patick McLoughlin in the recent reshuffle means there have been three Transport Secretaries in two and a half years.
"Looking particularly at the last two terms of the Labour Government, Transport Secretaries were moving within a matter of months, rather than years," says Mike Webb, Head of Public Affairs at the Freight Transport Association (FTA), a founding partner of Transport Hub.
"This rather indicates to some extent that the position of Transport Secretary is viewed as a temporary role, rather than a permanent position," he says.
Transport is often forgotten, Webb says, because there is a long lead in time for transport projects and essentially they can be "put off until tomorrow".
It is the view of Transport Hub that investment in transport is an "investment in Britain's economic future".
"This is because transport is not an end in itself, it is a means of getting either goods or people from A to B," Webb says.
Now in its third year, Transport Hub, a collaboration of several organisations working within the transport industry, is a conference innovation that continues to grow.
The success of Transport Hub can be proven in the willingness of new partners to be involved.
"It has proven to be particularly good at helping to provide support for people who maybe haven't taken part in party conference before and are looking to engage for the first time," Webb says.
The importance of infrastructure, acting as a catalyst of the economic recovery, will be a key underlying theme spanning Transport Hub fringe events during the conference season.
Webb thinks the strength of Transport Hub lies in its ability to talk about a broad variety of transport infrastructure projects.
"ABTA and the Airport Operators Association (AOA) for instance will be talking about the government's aviation policy framework and what that says about future aviation capacity, whilst the FTA will be discussing whether plans put in place by both the Government and the Labour Party are sufficient to improve road safety, then the All-Party Light Rail Group will be discussing trams. It really is a pretty eclectic mix of transport interests." he explains.
In terms of the key asks for the freight industry this conference season, tackling the planning system, fuel duty and commitment to green technology all make the list.
In terms of the rail system, Webb says that a 'political smile' is placed in the direction of rail freight.
"People like the idea of moving more freight by rail, yet the planning system is incredibly restrictive when it comes to getting rail interchanges built.
"Unlike in a lot of other countries this is private sector money that needs to be invested in the UK.
"The private sector isn't going to try forever to go through an endless planning system to develop something. If they find it difficult to build things here then we are talking about a global economy; they will try another planning system in a different country," Webb says.
Increasing surface access, links to major transport hubs such as airports and ports, is a key ask of the industry.
"We have a lot of port and airport infrastructure in this country that is badly served by the road and rail network. The principle of better surface access is absolutely vital to development," he says.
The FTA welcomed the government's decision not to push ahead with a fuel duty increase in August. However the industry is ever aware that the threat of a duty rise has not gone away.
"I don't think it is necessarily something that businesses can withstand in January more than they can do now," says Webb.
In terms of the environmental effects of the heavy use of fuel by the freight industry Webb says that they have come a long way in recent years. In addition to improved efficiency from the road sector, there has also been an 'exponential' growth in rail freight over the last 10-15 years.
"The overwhelming amount of freight still goes by road, particularly the final journey to the shop or home" he says.
"There are growing alternatives in terms of different ways of powering vans in particular, but for the most part, diesel is the key fuel and as long as we want to still move goods around the country the price of diesel is a huge issue."
The FTA and its members have taken steps to address the industry's carbon footprint, including the introduction of the first ever carbon reporting scheme for business transport functions, the Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme (LCRS).
There are also a number of levels of green technology that the industry is embracing, particularly in terms of both electric vans and gas powered vehicles.
However coming back to the main theme of the Hub's conference events, Webb says it all "harks back to infrastructure and the importance of infrastructure."
"If there is nowhere to charge a vehicle you are not going to invest in a whole fleet that are based around that particular technology," he says.
The partners involved in Transport Hub are ABTA, the All Party Light Rail Group, ACT TravelWise, AOA, BPA, CILT, FTA, Light Rapid Transit Forum, Sustainable Aviation and Sustrans.