Fork in the road: an overview of the year in the Transport portfolio

The challenges facing a transport minister can seem never-changing. In the pursuit of achieving the basics of the job – helping get people from A to B safely, affordably and reliably – the same obstacles can always get in the way.

Extreme weather, industrial action, commercial ups and downs – these are the traditional banes of anyone’s life who oversees the portfolio.

And when Michael Matheson took on the newly augmented brief of Cabinet Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity in June 2018, he accepted bigger challenges still. 

One was communicating a new vision of transport and how it fits into the wider picture of ‘connectivity’.

Emphasis at that time was placed on economic growth from a generally more well-connected country. Improvement in transport was cast as part of a buzzing investment and growth cycle. 

Writing in Holyrood’s 2018 Review, Matheson said: “Transport is also at the very heart of providing the physical infrastructure needed to help support economic growth. 

“Hospitals, housing, businesses and retail all rely on transport, just as transport relies on infrastructure such as broadband and utilities to function.”

But with 2019 seeming to be the year that governments worldwide were shaken into getting real about climate change, the priorities in Matheson’s portfolio may have to change again.

The daily bustle across the country’s network of roads, ferries, trains and airports is the leading source of greenhouse gasses in Scotland. At a time when emissions from almost every other sector are on the way down, the amount of carbon dioxide rising in the form of exhaust fumes has been increasing. 

The most recent figures, for 2017, show that road traffic makes up 65 per cent of all transport-related emissions, with cars contributing the bulk of that. 

Making transportation more sustainable has been a goal for a while, evidenced by the doubling of the ‘active travel’ budget in last year’s Programme for Government (PfG). But uptake on cycling, for example, has been nowhere near the targets set at the time.

And with the new commitment to make Scotland net-zero on carbon by 2045 and the declaration of a climate emergency, more drastic actions are necessary to buck the emissions trend hike.

In July, the government’s new ‘vision’ for the future of transport was unveiled with publication of the refreshed National Transport Strategy (NTS2), now out for public consultation.

In very broad terms, it sketched out a more “sustainable, inclusive and accessible transport system” where top priority is given to “protecting our climate and improving lives”. 

The NTS2 included a handy inverse pyramid graphic – called the ‘sustainable travel hierarchy’ – showing the types of transport the government will prioritise in the future. 

Top of the pile was walking and wheeling, followed by other forms of ‘active travel’ such as cycling, descending down to public transport and, bottom of the pile, the personal car. 

Signalling this reprioritisation, the release of the draft NTS2 was twinned with the announcement of the winning bids for Sustrans and Transport Scotland’s ‘Places for Everyone’ investment competition, which saw five projects around the Central Belt receive £60m funding to develop walking and cycle routes. 

But the NTS2 received criticism the moment it was published from environmental groups who pointed out that it did not contain any new emissions-cutting actions. 

Matheson agrees that “more must be done” to cut emissions and says that the forthcoming PfG will “reflect that shift”. 

In the lead-up to the PfG, Environment and Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said that she was looking across all government departments to try and identify action areas and build a unified response. 

It’s clear that some portfolio areas will have to carry a bigger load than others. 

The tension between transport’s role in economic growth and the newfound urgency to hit climate targets was seen in the breakneck U-turn the Scottish Government took on Air Departure Tax. 

After arguing the case for a much-reduced alternative to the UK’s Air Passenger Duty, the realisation that incentivising more flights was wholly incompatible with decarbonisation led to the “difficult decision” to axe the idea.

The NTS2 acknowledges that “the environmental impacts of aviation need to be recognised and offset if we are to achieve the net-zero target”.

Matheson talks about various policies meant to instil “behavioural change” in the public. Low emission zones and the option of a workplace parking levy are the two leading examples that are meant to tackle the whopping statistic that around 90 per cent of cars on the road carry no more than two passengers. 

While discouraging car use will be essential to cutting emissions and improving air quality, there will have to be an attractive alternative. 

Scotrail ticket fares increased again in August, the second time during a year that began with Matheson ordering the Scotrail Alliance to apologise and issue a plan to address its underperformance. 

While Matheson argues that the main obstacle to improving the service has been his lack of power over much of the railway infrastructure, held by Network Rail, a lack of carriages and drivers has also been an issue. 

Matheson’s predecessor, Humza Yousaf, made fairly regular threats to strip Abellio of the franchise contract, which runs until 2025. The current transport secretary has been a little more reserved. But with a break clause in the contract coming up in 2020, and ferry operator Calmac still rumoured to be the government’s choice for a public sector bid, this could be the year it happens.

Calmac itself continues to groan under the strain of an overworked, aged fleet of vessels, and company morale is low. As the Scottish Government is forced to swoop in and save the Ferguson shipyard from administration, there is still no certainty on the completion of the new environmentally-friendly, hybrid-fuel vessels that are needed to revive the lifeline service. 

The context in which Matheson works to connect the country may force a re-evaluation of priorities. But addressing a climate emergency and overcoming the same old problems may not be such different things after all.