What a year it's been!

Hello Supporter

What a year it's been! Transport has never been far from the headlines, and we've made exciting progress on some of our key campaigns.
 
Improving transport is about making people's lives better. Wherever we live and whatever our circumstances, we should all be to get to where we need to go. No one should be lonely or miss out on opportunities because their transport isn't good enough. And we urgently need to make transport greener, too.
 
These are the arguments we made - with your help - as the General Election approached. And as the new Government took office, with its high-profile promises to reform bus and rail services, we pressed for those reforms to put passengers and the planet front and centre - with great results.
 
Better buses
 
The Government's Bus Services Bill will allow local authorities to choose how best to deliver bus services in their area. We have worked hard to highlight the plight of lifeline bus services, many of which are under threat, so we are glad that the Bill guarantees these services cannot be cut without exploring alternatives.
 
And - another thing we have long campaigned for - the Government promised that when awarding bus funding to local authorities, it will now be allocated according to need, rather than making local authorities compete by putting together glossy bids, a practice that often led to the neediest areas missing out.
 
With more people using buses, and more zero-emission buses coming too, this was a good year for our bus campaigning.
 
Reforming rail
 
The Government is forging ahead with reforming the railways. It's good that the reforms are focused on the needs of passengers. And we are especially gratified that there is to be a best-price guarantee for train tickets so people know they're getting the best deal - as we campaigned for.
 
More responsibility for rail is to be given to Mayors, as has worked well in London and Liverpool, and 'tap-in, tap-out' ticketing will soon be introduced in more places, both in line with our asks. And very excitingly for a charity that has long campaigned to reverse the worst effects of the Beeching cuts, regular passenger services have returned to the Northumberland Line for the first time in more than 60 years! The reopened line will regenerate the area, connecting communities and cutting road congestion.
 
With 12 per cent more people making train journeys nationally than the year before, we're looking at a bright future for rail.
 
Plane speaking
 
The Chancellor listened to our calls to raise Air Passenger Duty on domestic flights - we hope the revenue raised will be used to make train travel an even better alternative.
 
And we had another win - taxes were increased on private jet travel, which is up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights.
 
Homes for the future
 
Our country sorely needs new homes, but these should be built around rail stations, tram networks and bus-friendly streets, so that residents do not have to drive everywhere. That's what we said in our response to a consultation by the Government, which has now revised its planning guidance to have a stronger, vision-led approach to transport planning.
 
Colourful campaigning
 
If much of this sounds a little dry, don't worry - we also kept up our colourful public campaigning to make transport better and encourage people on board! Whether running our inspiring Better Transport Week, delivering a massive postcard calling on Royal Mail not to scrap its mail trains, or appearing across TV and radio channels, we flew the flag for better transport at every chance we got.
 
We couldn't have done any of this without our fabulous supporters, so I want to finish by saying a huge thank you and wishing you a very happy new year!
 
Very best wishes
 
Paul
 
Paul Tuohy, Chief Executive, Campaign for Better Transport