The UK has some of the worst public transport of Europe’s “more economically developed countries” after decades of austerity and lack of investment into public services. But which local councils would you say have made the most out of what they have had to work with in developing a transport network that is effective for people to get to work, school and social events? What would you say makes each of them so effective and how did they achieve these things? I have excluded London as the UK (in my opinion) has a problem with pretending like London is the only place worth investing in when it comes to public transport.
I ask this question so that we can reflect on how places can make the average citizen’s life easier for getting about whilst on a budget. Even though the UK is in dire straights at the moment, it might be worth looking to the towns and cities that make the most out of what they’re given to understand how to develop good public transport (which will inevitably develop those micro-economies)
Thanks.
Are there any cities in the UK (other than London) with actual public transport, or just a bunch of private companies offering for-proft, substandard services?
Glasgow has a subway. Edinburgh, Manchester, and other cities have trams.
Glasgow should get it’s own DLC for Mini Metro ;)
I’ve never played Mini Metro but Glasgow probably wouldn’t be too interesting, the subway is just one circle with no offshoots or other lines. A couple of months back I was on the wrong platform so I went the wrong way around the loop, the end result being I had to wait one whole extra stop to get to my destination.
I’m not sure about the economic models of how such cities work, but Manchester and Nottingham have very competent rail/ tram services and public transport. I’m also pretty sure Nottingham also offers free travel to students.
Maybe it’s just Cambridge then. It’s pretty miserable here, though at least we can bike (semi) safely.
Brighton had a very good bus system. At least 10 years ago it covered all my needs. Plus bicycle lanes and trains to get to the nearest towns and I had 0 need or wish for a car.
I moved to US and miss those times
Having been across most of the UK, I can safely say that londons public transport is easily the best (kind of out of necessity as it’s nigh impossible to get anywhere on time with a car, considering the amount of traffic).
That being said however, it’s not like other cities fall far behind. The UK has really good bus & train networks outside of london, and given that other cities have FAR less traffic, the buses are actually usable.
I’m not going to rank it, but I am going to discuss two reasons why I think London beats other UK cities.
First is obviously that the city is the political and economic capital of the UK.
Second is the creation of the Greater London Authority and giving it transport as a responsibility. Having elected officials directly responsible for mass transit has made policies like tolling the CBD and projects like the Overground possible.
RMTransit just did a video about how it’s basically impossible to have good public transit without London-style city control.
The comments on his video list certain cities where the council own a bus company and everything works okay.
Note that the north of England almost got an Oyster card style of combined payment system thanks to tfN.
