The Queen’s Speech revealed parliament’s time will be largely taken up by other transport and Brexit for the next two years, so PSV policy is on the backburner – but that’s no reason to relax
With the legislative programme for the next two years dominated by Brexit, and with the Department for Transport’s legislative programme focused on automated and electric vehicles (the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill), space (the Space Industry Bill) and high speed rail (the HS2 2A Bill), I’m rather hoping that the bus and coach industry won’t be in the spotlight too much.
Not least because I suspect rail will also continue to dominate the transport policy headlines.
That’s not to say that Brexit isn’t critically important to the transport sector, especially to the coach industry, or that we won’t continue to hear rumblings about local authorities re-examining their bus strategies now the Bus Services Act has Royal Assent.
Then there’s the small matter of Greater Manchester’s plans for bus franchising to focus our minds on.
A blessing
But, in the overall scheme of things, I suspect we will see debate about bus policy rapidly fade away – a real blessing given the considerable focus on the matter these past couple of years or so.
Yet herein lies the challenge for bus operators. With ministerial eyes on other matters, rather than relax and risk complacency, bus operators actually have a real chance to shape attitudes and views about deregulation, simply by doing their jobs really, really well.
Ministers and shadow ministers are focusing on other transport policy agendas, and bus operators can lead by example.
We also have a new minister responsible for bus policy, Jesse Norman, so there is a fresh opportunity to impress. I just hope he is rather more up to the job than Andrew Jones, who never really seemed to get to grips with the issues.
Seen as senior?
Finally, as I write, it’s been announced that Labour will once again hold the chairmanship of the Transport Select Committee – and by the time you read this, the chairmanship of all the Select Committees should have been announced.
As I recall, an MP can only be Chair of a Select Committee for two parliamentary terms unless there is agreement that he or she can carry on beyond that timeframe, and as Louise Ellman has achieved that goal, there must be a strong possibility that we will have a new Transport Committee Chair. If so, I hope we have a rather more impressive individual than Louise.
The trouble is that the Transport Committee is not seen as that senior or important, so the calibre of candidates tends not to be too high. Which is odd, given that transport generally is a hugely important issue, and has a direct and deep impact not just on our lives, but on the general performance of the economy.
Perhaps I’m biased, but I have always seen transport as one of the most important policy areas in Whitehall, yet it has one of the smallest budgets and is generally regarded as a junior policy area. Perhaps this will change, one day, but probably not in my lifetime.
