The Institution of Civil Engineers has recently launched a consultation on the case for a National Transport Strategy for England, asking a set of questions from the need for this strategy to the potential scope of it. CIHT has constantly been promoting the idea of a National Transport Strategy in its previous statements, and we therefore look forward to working with ICE and other professional colleagues to promote this important idea to the government.

What did CIHT say in its response?

CIHT believes that the National Transport Strategy for England should identify critical national objectives and the transport development direction in England with a 10–20-year perspective. Not only should it function as the main reference document for all stakeholders involved in transport and other related sectors, but it should become a guiding framework for upcoming investment decisions around transport and infrastructure.

Other key messages included:

• A National Transport Strategy is an excellent opportunity to shift the current political paradigm from predict and provide towards and outcome-oriented decide and provide.
• There is a pressing need for a single document that will integrate transport and spatial planning. We can no longer afford to carry on projects without considering transport infrastructure from the early stages of development.
• The National Transport Strategy should regard our networks as a System of Systems by considering the local and strategic highways, rail, ports, and aviation as an interconnected whole.

Transport policymakers need to demonstrate that they have considered a broad range of drivers of the future transport demand and the uncertainties around them, including the estimated population growth, ageing population, urbanization, technological innovations, and sustainable transport demand.

CIHT engagement with other professional institutions

We are delighted to see that many of our key messages have become a part of the ICE consultation response including:

• The negative consequences of a lack of National Transport Strategy for achieving Net Zero and unlocking the full potential of the transport systems contribution to wider economic, social, and environmental national policy objectives.
• A need for engagement with Strategic Transport Bodies and local authorities to support the creation of NTS.
• Strategy should be vision-led (decide and provide) with a robust vision of how objectives will be achieved within a set of plausible scenarios.

You can read our full response to the ICE consultation here.

Do you want to contribute to CIHT’s responses to upcoming consultations? Click here to find out more.

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