Ms Truss stressed the importance of investment in the nation’s infrastructure and pledged that faster road building will be a priority under her leadership.

Ms Truss declared: “Now is the time to tackle the issues that are holding Britain back. We need to build roads, homes and broadband faster. We need more investment and great jobs in every town and city in the country.

“I have a bold plan to grow the economy through tax cuts and reform. I will cut taxes to reward hard work and boost business-led growth and investment. I will drive reform in my mission to get the United Kingdom working, building and growing.” 

Dealing with current pressures including mounting inflation and low energy supply, was also within her plan. The new PM has plenty of experience in the energy and telecommunications industry having previously worked in the sector for 10 years.

“We will get spades in the ground to make sure people are not facing unaffordable energy bills and we will also make sure that we are building hospitals, schools, roads and broadband”, Truss added.

The next steps for investment in the strategic road network will come from the Department for Transport’s draft Road Investment Strategy. This will then be finalised and National Highways’ will begin its Strategic Business Plan, mobilising the building of new roads in 2024-2025.

Elizabeth Truss was appointed prime minister on 6 September 2022. She was previously secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs from 15 September 2021 and minister for women and equalities from 10 September 2019.

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These findings are drawn from a major survey conducted by the Department for Transport (DfT) which asked 55% of England’s highway authorities about the condition of their traffic light signals. 

Roughly half of those questioned reported a maintenance backlog of more than £1m. This means, across England’s 150 authorities, costs are likely to total in excess of £80m. 

In addition to maintenance expenses, repairing faulty signals takes up a significant amount of the annual budget; 40% of local authorities reported an average spend of £100,000 per year. 

Acknowledging these statistics, TTF has called for traffic signalling to be upgraded nationwide. Installing newer, more reliable equipment will likely be more cost-effective than tackling mounting maintenance and repair costs. 

The survey found that around one-third of authorities have no, or very few, of the latest SCOOT or MOVA adaptively controlled signals. Additionally, 80% of highways authorities are yet to install wireless or mobile communications advances. 

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC and TTF chairman, said: “there is real potential to make an immediate difference to traffic and the safety of active travel by upgrading signalling.”   

“The more we look into the real-world state of our traffic signals the more potential we are finding for relatively inexpensive but important improvements – including repairs, refurbishment or simply retuning systems – to deliver benefits for traffic flow generally and for promoting active travel.” 

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The proposed project will give a new lease of life to some of the 3,250 abandoned structures, which include disused rail bridges, embankments, and tunnels. 

National Highways, which is managing the Historical Railways Estate, was planning to demolish or infill many of these historic sites until this latest assessment identified a more sustainable approach. The report of 75 structures, which was produced by active travel charity Sustrans, concluded that:

• 26 structures are potentially suitable for the National Cycle Network (NCN) 
• 24 structures might be useful for local cycling and walking routes 
• 25 further structures are not likely to be reused

Huw Merriman MP, chair of the Transport Select Committee, embraces the DfT’s plan to convert disused sites. He said: “This is a welcome reprieve for more than 50 of our historic railway structures. These structures work well with local cycling and walking plans – a valuable contribution to active travel.”

“The mystery is why these historical structures were sentenced to infilling or demolition in the first place – we should think about preservation before destruction.”

However, there’s still a long way to go as the historic sites will need to be structurally surveyed to ensure they are suitable and safe for their new use. Detailed assessments will be carried out in the coming months to see if this pipeline project can be rolled into action.

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Emergency areas on the four aforementioned schemes will be placed around 1.5 miles apart – almost double the distance of the new target promised by government ministers. As the policy was introduced after the design of these projects, Highways England is technically not breaking any rules or promises. 

However, in January of this year, the DfT publicly supported a recommendation from the Transport Select Committee that states: “The Department and National Highways should retrofit emergency refuge areas to existing all-lane running motorways to make them a maximum of 1,500 metres apart, decreasing to every 1,000 metres (0.75 miles) where physically possible.

“The Stocktake and Action Plan launched a new standard to achieve closer spacing of EAs at 0.75 miles where feasible, up to a maximum of 1 mile. This is now a design requirement for new ALR smart motorways schemes which entered the design phase from November 2020.’”

These issues have sparked concerns over new stretches of all-lane-running motorways that will not comply with the latest policy, such as one situated in Hampshire. For around 30 miles of road, there are only 13 emergency areas, leaving distances between refuge locations of over double the recommended length of 0.75 miles.

Louise Haigh, the shadow secretary of state for transport, said: “This exposes the glaring flaws in the Transport Secretary’s action plan. It looks like ministers are cutting corners with road safety and risking more avoidable tragedies. The Government should stop taking people for fools, think again, and guarantee safety work is completed before the new smart motorways are opened.”

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The total fleet number will reach 252 vehicles next year after another additional 132 are added as part of a two-year rollout. The gritters meet Euro 6 regulations, ensuring that they have the best current environmental standards for heavy-duty Cl diesel engines. 

With speeds of up to 50mph, the new vehicles are around 10mph faster than previous models, allowing a more efficient approach to road gritting. This year’s vehicles will be delivered to areas of the South and the Midlands.

Duncan Smith, National Highways’ acting executive director of operations, said: “The new vehicles are an impressive sight and this year’s rollout once again demonstrates our commitment to keeping drivers safe throughout the winter months […]

“We want everyone to travel safely on our roads and ask that drivers take extra care near gritters, leave a safe distance, overtake gritters carefully when it is safe to do so and at a reduced speed.

“When the wintry weather arrives our winter teams across the country will be ready to work around the clock to keep traffic moving.”

Including these new vehicles, National Highways now has 535 gritters available for use on our roads. Operating these are 1,300 specially trained gritter drivers. Over 280,000 tonnes of salt is also in storage, ready to be used. 

With all of these measures in place, the government-owned company aims to keep roads as efficient as possible this winter. For more news on travel conditions and the latest road safety news, be sure to keep up to date with the Anglo Liners blog. Alternatively, click here for a free quote.

The programme was originally set in motion because maintaining some bridges was deemed to be too dangerous or too costly. Highways England, which manages The Historical Railways Estate (HRE), aimed to reduce liability and risk by either demolishing or infilling the bridges.

The plans were met with significant opposition, including a national campaign by HRE, who disagreed with the motion. Local activists also challenged the initiative.

In light of these concerns, the Department for Transport (DfT) recently announced a review of the scheme.

“By the autumn, we will establish a formalised framework and engagement process for these structures to understand, in each case, whether there is a realistic prospect of it being used for active travel or other transport purposes in future; and to ensure that the views of local stakeholders, including active travel groups and the local authority, are fully taken into account.” 

“Until then, any infilling or demolition on these structures will be paused, unless there is an immediate need to act on grounds of public safety.”

Cumbria’s Eden District Council was one local authority to dispute Highways England’s scheme, stating that the company had refused to pause works on a local bridge after being asked. The council has now requested that Highways England apply for planning permission before going ahead with the infilling.

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The organisation leading the study is set to receive a reported £2m, which falls under the £20m allocated to zero-emission road freight trials under the DfT’s plan. Decarbonising lorries will help to build a more environmentally friendly road network across the UK.

Heavy goods vehicles are currently responsible for almost a 5th (18%) of all road CO2 emissions, despite making up just 1.2% of traffic. By 2040, all new diesel and petrol lorries in Britain are due to be banned, meaning a new system is needed to provide alternative power for these large vehicles. 

The ‘e-highway’ will involve the installation of overhead wires on up to 19 miles of the M180. The technology, similar to that which powers trains and trams, will charge a battery that has been fitted into each lorry as it’s being driven. Lorries cannot run on a single charge like electric cars, because they require too much power.

Similar plans have been trialled in Germany and Sweden on a smaller scale. If the study goes ahead, this will be the first large-scale deployment of such technology worldwide. The vehicles and their power cables could be on British roads as early as 2024.

William Wilson, CEO of Siemens Mobility Limited, said: “Investing in proven technologies like e-highways can help us go further and faster to decarbonise the UK’s transport network, and support jobs and growth to level up the country.

“By building on successful trials from other countries like Germany, our ERS consortium M180 trial will help the UK move a step closer to replacing more polluting trucks with clean, efficient electric HGVs.”

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The road casualties report, published by the Department for Transport, states that there were 1,472 fatalities in 2020, which is down from 1,752 in 2019. This means that deaths on our roads did decrease by 16%, but due to the lower levels of traffic, fatality rates actually rose.

Cyclists were among those worst affected, with the report showing a 40% increase in the number of deaths from 2019 to 2020. There was also a 46% rise in pedal cyclist traffic at this time though, meaning that the overall fatality rate dropped by 4%.

AA president Edmund King said: “Predictably, the pandemic has seen fatal and serious collisions drop by more than a fifth compared to last year, but tragically, more than 1,400 people were killed on the roads.

“If we are to achieve zero road deaths by the end of the decade, we must ensure this overall reduction is not a one-off.”

He also discussed the need for continued road safety campaigning, with the aim of reminding motorists to be cautious near cyclists. 

“It is staggering that with car traffic down to as little as 22% of pre-lockdown levels and the big increase in protected pop-up routes, the level of cyclist casualties was so high,” said King. “This points strongly to the need for better engineering, more education and more cops in cars to help eliminate road deaths.

“We will continue to push our Think Bikes! campaign so that drivers take more care around cyclists.”

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Ofgem says that this comes as part of a larger push to ‘ensure Britain has the energy infrastructure it needs to support the move to low carbon transport and heating while maintaining secure supplies’.

The money will be delivered over the next two years, helping to triple the current network of charging stations. These additional charge points (including new ultra-rapid charge points) will be positioned in key locations, such as cities, motorway services and train stations in rural areas.

Currently, an increasing number of people are choosing to buy electric vehicles. However, Ofgem has found that up to 36% of households not intending to purchase one stated a lack of nearby charge points as a reason why.

The government regulator hopes that the roll-out of these plans will help to address concerns surrounding the issues of range and access to a charger.

Jonathan Brearley, Chief Executive of Ofgem, said: “The payment will support the rapid take up of electric vehicles, which will be vital if Britain is to hit its climate change targets. Drivers need to be confident that they can charge their car quickly when they need to.”

Transport Minister Rachel Maclean also added: “With more than 500,000 electric cars now on UK roads, this will help to increase this number even further as drivers continue to make the switch to cleaner, greener vehicles.”

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The government-owned company has said this is its ‘biggest ever motorway safety campaign’, and is one part of their 18-point action plan. The main message is that drivers should ‘go left’ if they encounter an issue with their vehicle, and will be broadcast across TV, radio, social media and digital channels.

If road users cannot exit the motorway, they are encouraged to move into an emergency area, onto the hard shoulder, into services, the left-hand verge or an A-road lay-by and switch on their hazard warning lights.

The advert was launched shortly after the Department for Transport (DfT) promised a targeted campaign on the subject. Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “With regard to an information campaign so that people understand how to use all motorways, not just smart motorways, that £5m campaign was one of the calls of the stocktake.”

Acting Chief Executive of Highways England, Nick Harris, also stated: “This campaign is just one of the many steps we are taking to invest in our network with safety as our number one priority, doing everything we can to help drivers feel confident on our motorways.”

Some have criticised the campaign for not being specific enough to smart motorways. Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, Jim McMahon, said: “It reduces it down to an insult, insinuating that drivers who became stranded were somehow careless. They were not. They were the victims of an ill-conceived scheme, which is still leaving people at risk today.”

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