50 years of Campaign for Better Transport

Back in 1973, when our journey began, transport was taking a dangerous direction. Public transport was increasingly being seen as ‘old fashioned’, and the Government placed private cars at the heart of its transport policy.

A small group of people had a different vision. Far from being a thing of the past, public transport was essential to avoid a gridlocked future. Rather than shrinking, it needed to thrive. To reflect their forward thinking, they called themselves Transport 2000.

The small group grew, its voice strengthened and it changed transport for the better in many ways, and as the year 2000 came and went, it changed its name to Campaign for Better Transport.

We now have many thousands of supporters on board, giving us real power to change things for the better. With their help we have succeeded in many important campaigns. More broadly, we have helped to change the way Government sees transport. Policy makers now recognise that public transport has a crucial economic, social and environmental role within our transport network with the Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan outlining a future where:

“Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities. We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network.”

Our campaigning helped make this turn-around happen.

Of course, there is much still to do. The threats to sustainable transport have not gone away, and carbon emissions and air pollution from transport remain much too high. And so we hope you will join us, both in celebrating our 50th anniversary, and in looking forward, just as that small group did 50 years ago, to how we can achieve a better transport future.

Our history

A lot has changed in the 50 years since Campaign for Better Transport was founded as Transport 2000 on 6 February 1973.

View timeline as text

You can read more about our history in these blogs by our chief executive Paul Tuohy, 50 years of Campaign for Better Transport, and our former CEO, Stephen Joseph, Campaign for Better Transport – a history.

Better Transport Week

To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we organised the first ever Better Transport Week to celebrate the transport that makes our lives better. Packed with events, positive actions, eye-catching social media and more, the week brought the transport industry, government, business and NGOs together, along with passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. The week was so successful, we’ve decided to make it an annual event. Better Transport Week 2024 will take place from Monday 17 to Sunday 23 June. Find out more about the week.