Campaign for Better Transport turns 50

6 February 2023

Paul Tuohy, Campaign for Better Transport’s Chief Executive, said: “I am proud to be able to stand here today and celebrate Campaign for Better Transport’s 50th year campaigning for sustainable transport. We’ve come a long way in that time, helping see off damaging cuts to the rail network, preventing roads dominating our towns and cities and helping change Government policy to ensure more communities have access to public transport. There’s still a lot of work to be done though, so we won’t be resting on our laurels. With lots of campaigning activities planned for this year we’re hoping this is just the start of the next 50 years.”

Stephen Joseph, former Campaign for Better Transport Chief Executive for more than 30 years, said: “For 50 years, Campaign for Better Transport, and its predecessor Transport 2000, has spoken up for and brought people together to campaign for better and cheaper rail and bus services, less traffic, less road building and less car dependence. With cuts in public transport and more widely the threat of climate breakdown, the need for the charity continues with plenty of work left to do.”

Campaign for Better Transport was founded as Transport 2000 in 1973 to campaign against plans to halve the British Rail Network from around 11,000 route miles to 5,000. The Government’s ‘secret’ plan was leaked to the media and the National Union of Railwaymen (now the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)) decided to fight the hugely damaging plans. Realising it needed broader support to fight the planned cuts, it brought together environmental groups, notably the Civic Trust, the Conservation Society and the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE), to create Transport 2000.

After its initial inception, Transport 2000 expanded its remit to fight the prevailing policy of the time of urban and inter-urban road building, notably London’s three ‘ringways’ which included a central motorway which would have demolished many inner London suburbs. With bus deregulation in 1986, Transport 2000 campaigned to protect bus passengers from the negative effects of privatisation. In 2007, the charity changed its name to Campaign for Better Transport and now has more than 20,000 supporters.

The last 50 years have seen a number of campaign wins for the charity, including seeing off those plans to close half the rail network; helping to stop the ‘biggest road building programme since the Romans’; reforming company car taxation; helping get rid of the hated ‘pacer’ trains in the North of England; the Fair Fares Now campaign to stop double digit rail fare rises; the New Stations Fund; the introduction of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund; and gaining a long-overdue national strategy for buses.

ENDS

For further information please contact the press office on 07984 773 468 (calls only no texts) or communications@bettertransport.org.uk

Notes to Editors

1. High-resolution photographs are available on request. Photographs should be credited to Kimi Gill. The photos show the Campaign for Better Transport team celebrating the charity’s 50th anniversary, including current Chief Executive Paul Tuohy and former Chief Executive for more than 30 years Stephen Joseph.
2. Campaign for Better Transport was founded as Transport 2000 on 6 February 1973.
3. In 1973, the Railway Gazette and Daily Telegraph leaked Government plans to close half the rail network. See Reg Dawson: A very brave and determined man and also “Holding the Line: How Britain’s Railways were saved”, by Richard Faulkner and Chris Austin, Ian Allan 2012 for more on this.
4. London’s lost ringways
5. In 1989 the Government launched “the biggest roads programme since the Romans”, under the title ‘Roads for Prosperity’.
6. Campaigners respond to plans for better rail services for the north of England
7. Public anger over rail fare increases as Fair Fares Now campaign launches
8. Report calls for fund to reopen lines shut by Beeching
9. Campaign group welcomes new local sustainable transport fund
10. Hugely ambitious bus strategy welcomed
11. Campaign for Better Transport operates in England and Wales. Campaign for Better Transport’s vision is for all communities to have access to high quality, sustainable transport that meets their needs, improves quality of life and protects the environment. Campaign for Better Transport Charitable Trust is a registered charity (1101929).