Better Transport

The North East shows us that one doesn’t need to be dependent on a car to live in the countryside – good news for the millions who live in rural areas. In the North East, more people in the countryside than anywhere else are within two kilometres – a 20-minute stroll – of a post office and a primary school.

The fact that most people in the countryside own a car often means that public transport gets ignored. But allowing rural areas to be car ghettos leaves hundreds of thousands of people who don’t have cars living very isolated lives.

Public transport is made a good option for people through its cost – lowest in the country here in the North East – and through investments that have improved trains, buses and trams.

The North East could do much more to make walking and cycling a good option for people in urban areas though. The urban roads are the busiest in the country and the cars travel fast, which stops people from wanting to cycle and walk along them.

Your turn

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Some comments we've received

Mark in North Tyneside: “In my opinion the North East should get an F.
This is mainly because a lot of places such as Ashington, Blyth and Bedlington are not connected to the rail network when a working freight line exists... In my experience, bus services from Newcastle to Blyth after 19:00 are useless, more expensive (the bus also takes a lot longer as well) and the last bus is far too early. So if you have to work late, the only option is Car! Tthe Metro stops running too early on some parts of the network and there is scope for improving the network between the coast and the Regent Centre and Airport. A lot of people have to change at South Gosforth, which causes packed trains and platforms. Though there is supposed to be a lot of investment coming to the Metro, in my opinion the ticketing system is appalling as the machines only take coins and there are no change machines... If improvements are made people may use their cars less.” 

Tim Wright in Sunderland: As a cyclist I can vouch for the lack of driver understanding of cyclist needs in the north east....The metro still going strong after all these years!...We're being bombarded by regional and local media telling us the North East is going to be a trailblazer in terms of the development of electric cars. OK this may or may not be the case but it still fails to address the volume of traffic using the road network, let alone failing to encourage us to become more physically active.

Regional results

East Midlands East of England North East North WestSouth EastSouth West West Midlands Yorkshire & the Humber