Coach travel should see ‘renaissance’, says climate action charity

Coach travel should be recognised as being able to play a major role in political priorities and it should be leveraged via a long-term renaissance for the mode, according to a wide-reaching and radical report, Greening us out of gridlock.

It has been published by climate action charity Possible and written by consultant, mediator and trustee of the Foundation for Integrated Transport Ralph Smyth. The baseline purpose is to explore how coach travel in Britain can be expanded. While largely considering scheduled coach services, tourism-based applications are also within its scope.

The report notes that “coaches are a great opportunity for private investment into sustainable travel,” and calls for change to how space is allocated on major roads to make that attractive.

Possible’s proposals involve converting sections of motorway hard shoulder to coach and bus lanes, as has already happened in Scotland. 300 miles that are advocated, along with the creation of 30 new coach interchanges, all by 2030.

Such a step would improve the attractiveness of coach travel and benefit operators’ profitability, the charity says. That policy sits alongside a call for restrictions on car access to city centres and tourist hotspots.

The report highlights coaches’ green credentials, but calls for support in decarbonising those vehicles. High-power chargers are part of the document’s motorway-based policy along with items such as road pricing and a leisure parking levy to incentivise coach travel.

Also in focus are targets for modal shift to public transport for longer journeys and to reduce traffic, greater data sharing for coaches, and what Mr Smyth terms a “reset” of public perception of coach as a mode of transport.

In perhaps the report’s most radical call, Possible wants coach to form a key part of the levelling up agenda through a new network of regional and long-distance express services – including ‘sleeper’ routes – to bring people to, from and around the North of England.

That scope would extend into Scotland and to South West England, along with London and even Amsterdam and Paris under the proposals.

While plans laid out in the report can be considered optimistic at best, Possible believes that if they are delivered, “by 2030 a coach renaissance would be in full swing, with new sleeper, luxury and pop-up services catering for an ever-wider range of journeys and people.”

Download the full report here.