Hope in the valley

Sometimes a ground breaking idea emerges from the fug of despair and paralysis which gives people hope that things can change for the better.

Sometimes a ground breaking idea emerges from the fug of despair and paralysis which gives people hope that things can change for the better. And here is one. I’ve always struggled about what to say and do about rural transport. I’ve been stymied on phone in radio programmes when asked about how sustainable public transport can be introduced to remote, sparsely populated parts of the country.

The solutions for urban areas are all too obvious and every transport planner can rattle them off without a moment’s thought: better public transport, ticket integration, possibly a few big schemes such as trams and subways or even fast buses, low traffic neighbourhoods, congestion charges, cycle lanes and so on. There are countless examples of towns and cities, or areas within them which have been transformed by the adoption of sustainable transport policies.

Not so easy, however, is rural transport. It is difficult to argue for buses which will be extremely expensive to provide, rail is often simply not available and cycling is too dangerous on rural roads. Ah but there is one country which has largely cracked this issue which is Switzerland that has a dedicated set of bus routes operating at relatively high frequencies connecting in with tram and rail services.

That’s why Thomas Ableman, the man behind this new proposal has called his scheme ‘Mini Switzerland’. Moreover, rather fittingly, the example he has worked through is set in a – real – place called Hope Valley, encompassing parts of both Lancashire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire.

The basic concept as set out in his excellent pamphlet (available here) is to provide ‘a fully worked-up blueprint for creating a Swiss-style integrated public transport network in the Peak District, where hourly buses and trains are carefully timed to connect, tickets work across all modes, and the whole system operates as one joined-up network’.

Sounds simple but of course it is not. He has chosen the Hope Valley as the possible location for a test scheme because it is a relatively poor area with low levels of car ownership squeezed between two major cities – Manchester and Sheffield – but benefitting from a railway that can be the centrepiece of a public transport system.

The heart of the concept is integration and the provision of a coherent public transport system. Rural areas are difficult for public transport providers because of low usage and high costs. The ‘mini Switzerland’ concept recognises this but is based on the idea that if there is a high standard of provision, it will be better used. Of course, this will require some extra subsidy but as Ableman points out, there is no need for expensive capital spending on new roads, railways or even bus depots. Moreover, ‘Crucially, the issues encountered in the Hope Valley – narrow roads, dispersed villages, visitor surges, irregular bus patterns, remote stations, lack of ticketing integration – are typical of rural areas nationwide’. In other words, the model could be applied elsewhere.

His ideas are not new as they are applied throughout Switzerland, hence the name he has chosen. Nor is there anything very radical. The concept encompassed ideas like clockface timing for both buses and trains, integration between the two, simple ticketing which means that all modes can be used by a single fare, clear information, better marketing of bus services – and, crucially not leaving anyone ‘off the map’.

Would it not cost a fortune? Apparently not with just a few extra million invested mostly in simply providing better services. And they would pay for themselves in terms of societal benefits, such as helping older people be more mobile, making housing more accessible for people working and living in remote communities and encouraging visitors to the local Peak District National Park to arrive by means other than a car. Indeed, the report points out that at the moment it is quite hard for people living near the Park to get there due to the lack of transport.

As Ableman puts it, ‘For years we’ve been stuck in a cycle where rural public transport costs more and delivers less. Mini Switzerland shows there’s another way. By properly integrating buses and trains, we can unlock far more value from the networks we already fund.

“Transport integration is one of the most powerful, and most cost-effective, tools we have to widen access to opportunity and drive economic growth. At a time when budgets are tight, it’s never been more important to make the system work as a joined-up whole.”

This is a radical idea that deserves government buy-in. At the moment, transport services are still largely dictated by the structure of encouraging competition, rather than cooperation which is the result of Tory legislation of the 19809s and 1990s on bus and rail services. To create a scheme like this, that ethos needs to be reversed with the emphasis on cooperation between different providers. A Labour government should be able to create the right climate for this – but whether it will have the courage to do so remains an open question.

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