UK General Election: Transportation issues

It’s always fun (for me at least) to follow British politics as well as their transportation policies (see my recent comments here and here). 

So how big a role does transportation play in the current UK General Election campaign?  Actually, not much. 

Overall, the main political parties are broadly supportive of significant, and generally responsible, investment in transportation.

A look at the party campaign manifestos (what we would call platforms) gives an insight into their overall approach.

The Conservatives (the party in power) mainly emphasize increased investment, with promises to build a new runway at Heathrow, build the new high-speed rail line (HS2), and add lanes to congested motorways.

Labour focuses its manifesto on renationalizing the railroads.  In part this is a reaction to deteriorating service on the passenger network and in part a reflexive return to old Labour policies (party like it’s 1945!).

The Liberal Democrats do the best at linking transportation, environment, and energy policies, with calls for a Green Transport Act.

The Greens, although advocating a “People’s Transport System,” don’t offer a lot of specifics (interesting cross-national perspective: the Greens oppose the new high-speed rail line).

It is refreshing, from this side of the pond, to see all the major parties take serious positions about reducing the carbon component of the transportation system.  The Conservatives state an ambition “for Britain to lead the world in electric vehicle technology and use.”  Labour promises to “position the UK at the forefront of the development, manufacture and use of ultra low emission vehicles, supporting the creation of clean modes of transport through investment in low emission vehicles.”  The Liberal Democrats pledge to “support the manufacture of low-emission and electric vehicles, generating jobs and exports” and “reform vehicle taxation to encourage sales of electric and low-emission vehicles and develop electric vehicle infrastructure including universal charging points.”

Surprisingly, given the increase in extreme weather events in Britain in recent years, the parties devote little attention to transportation system resilience, although the

Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Greens advocate increased investment in flood management infrastructure.

There’s probably no immediate policy takeaway for the US from these campaign positions – the circumstances of each of these issues has very localized features – but it is clear to me that whoever wins this election will provide a more progressive transportation approach than what we are struggling with here!

(An overview of all the party transportation manifestos can be found here.  Those wanting to dive deeper can find the texts as follows: Conservatives here, Labour here, Liberal Democrats here, Greens here).