Consultation launches on strategy to make North’s transport system more socially inclusive

Transport for the North (TfN) has opened a consultation on its strategy to ensure the region’s transport network is effective, socially inclusive, and meets the needs of the diverse places and populations of the North.

The transport body’s Socially Inclusive Transport Strategy provides an evidence-based policy agenda for achieving a more equal, effective, and inclusive transport system across the North. It builds on research published in September that revealed 3.3 million people live in areas at risk of social exclusion due to transport issues, either due to being unable to access opportunities, services and community life where links are absent, or due to excessive time, financial and wellbeing impacts of expensive, slow or otherwise poor quality services.

Social exclusion due to transport issues particularly impacts those on low incomes and in insecure work, carers, and people with disabilities. Those living in smaller towns, on the edges of our major cities, and in coastal communities are also particularly likely to be affected.

The Socially Inclusive Transport Strategy provides a clear pathway to a transport system that works for all of the places and people of the North. This includes defining how TfN will work with a range of transport stakeholders to achieve this aim, the wider policy agenda necessary for significant progress, and the data by which TfN will monitor progress towards this aim.

The consultation is running from November 7 to December 12, 2022. The strategy and details on how to respond are available here.

Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive of Transport for the North, said:

“Income, social, and health inequalities are widely seen as defining challenges of the 21st Century. As such, inclusive growth should be at the heart of public investment – delivering a transport network that works for all areas and communities.

“Working with our partners, TfN’s Socially Inclusive Transport Strategy identifies transport interventions that can deliver inclusive economic growth, improve health and wellbeing, and benefit all communities.

“Only by investing now will we make it easier to connect people and places with services and opportunities and address the barriers within our transport system that create inequalities in society.”