No Way to Run a Railway

Rail's woes are due to bureaucracy, not privatization. It's time for the government to release the railway from its overburdening grip. A grip entrenched in regulation that has far too many officials, or any proper functionality. Iain Murray, the author, says that for the railways to work, "the train operation companies must be given more control, and have a major say in how station and track improvements are managed. This will lead to more customer-driven investment decisions," he insists, "providing in turn much more of what train users actually want."

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A Cloudy Energy Future

In a new ASI paper, distinguished energy expert Prof Ian Fells says the government's energy policy is 'timid, complacent, and reckless'.

Read the full paper here

Running the buses

Local authority officers, backed by proposals from Brussels, want to end the 20 year old deregulation of buses and bring bus operations back under their control, says transport executive Prof. John Hibbs OBE in this ASI report. He sees this as likely to bring higher competition and higher taxes.

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The Road from Inequity

Town traffic causes by far the bulk of the congestion, pollution, accidents, and noise nuisance of driving - all of which cost society seven times what urban motorists pay in taxes. Rural drivers, by contrast, are overcharged three times for their use of the roads. For heavy vehicles in urban areas during peak-hours this discrepancy is even higher, claims the report, which proposes a £15 billion cut in the revenue collected in fuel duty, vehicle taxes and VAT. People driving in towns, however, would pay tolls averaging 5.6p per mile, with charges much higher at peak times and for high-polluting heavy vehicles.

Read it here.

Response to the CAA

The Adam Smith Institute has told the Civil Aviation Authority that UK airports are over-regulated and under-competitive. This report by former airport director David Stanley says that the CAA should focus on safety regulation, that UK airports should be opened up to more competition, and that the economic regulation of airports should be passed to a new, independent regulator.

Read it here.

Urban Road Pricing

A series of factsheets that examine the need, and methods of implementation, for urban road user charging.

Read it here.

Don't stop the Bus

Bus services would be more efficient if local transport officials, who seem bent on reversing the deregulation of the last decade, just got out of the way and let private bus companies manage things more freely, an international expert on transport argues. A government so committed to competition should reject highly regulated European-style 'franchise' systems that prevail in London, the report maintains.

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Charging ahead: making road user charging work in the UK

This detailed report from the Institute's Trafficflow project team explores the equipment and policy requirements to make congestion charging work in major cities. How much does congestion cost? Why must a charging scheme be electronic rather than paper based? How can the technology be made affordable? How much importance should be given to simplicity, flexibility, public opinion, privacy and bolt on services that make life better for road users?

Read it here.

Underground Revolution

Private finance can save London Underground from crisis. The report proposes that three to five, probably four investment-led contracts, or "concessions", should be offered to private sector consortia to design, modernize, finance and operate services, stations and infrastructure.

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Deregulated Decade

The achievement of the bus industry in the last decade has been 'truly remarkable', emerging from a long period of managed decline to become market-led, quality minded, and capable of ending three decades of loss of custom to the car. This report assesses how innovation is winning people back to buses.

Read the full report.