That Labour made a strong showing in early May’s council and mayoral elections in England came as little surprise, although Andy Street’s narrow defeat in the West Midlands raised an eyebrow.
Some newly elected mayors clearly expect that Labour will form the next government. Talk of the franchising of bus services is thus predictable, although at least one of the timelines already given via manifesto for its completion in a large metropolitan area suggests little understanding of the complexity (for now) of such a process.
Industry representative bodies will be seeking to engage with these newly minted or re-elected mayors as a matter of urgency. So too will organisations with aims that do not necessarily match those of the coach and bus sector’s majority.
Traffic speeds, bus priority, coach parking and other matters will be raised in such talks. But will the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) debacle? None of those in England, nor Low Emission Zones (LEZs) in Scotland, provide anything better than bit-part exemptions for coach and bus. In fact, the default position is that the mode is treated more harshly than diesel car traffic.
Arguments why the opposite should be true have fallen on deaf ears so far. Failings in the Newcastle and Gateshead CAZ are well known, with a bizarre decision to tie coaches to bus-based unanswered questions over SCR retrofit effectiveness having no base in reason.
Scotland will soon begin enforcement in more LEZs, but in England, momentum around the establishment of further CAZs is waning. Wales has never boarded the emission control zone train and looks unlikely to do so now.
Campaigning around strategy for further CAZs or LEZs thus looks unnecessary, but what those bodies that will be making their cases over the coming weeks and months would do well to target is change of attitude to coaches and buses in existing emission control zones.
Mobility is high on the agenda for most ‘metro mayors’ in England. The Scottish Government has highly ambitious targets for car use reduction, while the Welsh Government has a very close eye on transport policy.
There can be no realistic expectation that CAZ and LEZ restrictions on all coaches and buses, no matter how polluting, can be unwound, but it is time for a closer focus on how those high-volume, low road space modes sit holistically with wider local policy objectives. Representative bodies understand that. Now it should be hoped that politicians can, too.
