Coursework  Transport Institutions and Politics Page  1

Transport  Institutions and Politics: Who matters in making Transport  

Policy  Decisions?  

Contents   

Page   

1  Assignment.  2

2  Decision-makers in transport politics in Britain  2

2.1  Central Government  2

2.2  Local government.  3

2.3  The influence of European Union policies.  3

3  Comparison of the British and the German transport policy system  4

3.1  A short overview of the German system.  4

3.1.1  Federal level responsibilities.  4

3.1.2  Federal state level responsibilities.  4

3.1.3  Communal level responsibilities  4

3.2  Major differences between the British and the German transport policy system  5

4  The role of interest and pressure groups  5

4.1  Principles of interest and pressure groups.  5

4.2  Examples of successful interventions  6

5  Case study 1: the METRORAPID project in Germany  7

5.1  Introduction  7

5.2  The involved parties  7

5.3  Summary  8

6  Case study 2: the heavy goods vehicle toll on German motorways.  8

6.1  Introduction  8

6.2  The decision in detail  8

6.3  Summary  9

7  Conclusions  9

7.1  Summary  9

7.2  The division between local and central responsibilities.  10

7.3  Do we need pressure groups?  10

7.4  The growing importance of courts in decision-making  11

8  List of references.  12

Frank  Gümmer  

Coursework Transport Institutions and Politics Page 2

1 Assignment

The objective of this coursework is a report on who matters in making decisions on transport projects and policies. The report should examine the role of both individuals and groups involved in the process of arriving at decisions on transport projects and transport policies. In this context, transport projects are for example new infrastructure projects, whereas transport policies refer to the regulation and pricing of transport.

First, the British system of decision making in transport is described, followed by a brief description of the German system and a comparison of both systems. Then the influence of pressure groups is examined and some examples of successful pressure group interference are presented. Two case studies examine the decision making process in practice and illustrate the variety of involved parties. Finally, some major conclusions are drawn, reflecting the author’s personal opinion.

2 Decision-makers in transport politics in Britain

2.1 Central Government

One very simple question about the role of governments in transport politics is why governments interfere in transport at all. Reasons for government interference are the fear of monopolies of large transport companies, the need of setting and enforcing safety standards for both passenger and freight transport, the inability of private companies to cope with very large infrastructure problems, and sometimes the protection of national interests as well. In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport (DfT) is the responsible government body concerning transport policy. It is the successor of the former Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) and the Department for transport took over its predecessor’s transport policy responsibilities. The Prime Minister had decided to create a new Department for Transport to focus solely on transport issues. ^I The Department for Transport is headed by the Secretary of State for Transport, currently Mr Alistair Darling. Among his major objectives are the promotion of new transport legislation and the fund raising of government money to be used for the Department for transport. Also, in case of public inquiries about major transport projects, the Secretary of State for Transport has the right and the duty to take the final decision.

There are, however, a number of constraints to the power of the Secretary of State for Trans-port. First, other ministers like the Chancellor of Exchequer or the ministers responsible for the environment and industrial competitiveness, all have an important impact on transport policy. Hence it is not only the Secretary of State for Transport who shapes transport policy within the government. ^II Furthermore, the European Union has become a growing constraint to the power of the Secretary of State for Transport. EU-regulations predominantly affect technical standardisation, but often the EU influence is noticeable when it comes to EU-funding of transport projects. The availability of EU-money for a particular project will have a decisive influence on the transport decision. Of course, external factors like for example the global economic situation, influence the power of the Transport Secretary as well. Also a strong environmentalist influence, either within Parliament or in public, can affect transport decisions by the Secretary of State. III

^I Comp. www.dtlr.gov.uk, 29.11.2002.

^II Comp. Glaister, Transport policy in Britain, pp. 49-50.

^III Comp. Truelove, www-users.aston.ac.uk/~truelopf, 29.11.2002.

Coursework Transport Institutions and Politics Page 3

2.2 Local government

In general, the importance of local government in transport planning has decreased during the last decades. Local authorities have always operated within a framework set by central government. Central government for example lays down advisory standards for roads. As the ma-jor part of the money local authorities spend is not raised by the local authorities themselves, but by central government, central government has considerable power over local governments and their decisions. Of course, this power affects transport decisions as well. The degree of centralization definitely depends on the government, whether a Labour or a Conservative government is in charge. As Glaister puts it: “In the British unwritten constitution local government is always at the mercy of central government.”

The division of responsibility for roads between local authorities and central government seems to be determined by historical reasons. National roads are trunk roads and virtually all motorways, whereas local roads comprise all roads not designed as trunk roads. Under the Trunk Road Act 1936 central government was assigned full financial responsibility for all trunk roads. The responsibility for local roads is entirely in the hands of local governments, the so-called local highway authorities. These highway authorities often are instructed by central government to maintain national roads under contract to the Department for Transport. However, these contracts are currently put out to competitive tender in an increasing number of cases, and private companies become a more and more important player in maintaining national roads. I

Within local governments there are committees which deal with all the different objectives of transport and infrastructure planning. Each committee consists of specialists for specific projects. The committees are delegated different projects regarding their particular field of expertise. Membership in these committees mostly reflects party strength in the council. The elected mayor has no major influence on local politics and thus neither on transport politics in most cases, in contrast to other European countries like France or Germany, where the mayor is an important player in local politics.

2.3 The influence of European Union policies

The European Union has a large impact on all its member states’ national policies. Not only by laying down new legislation in order to harmonize the European Union market, but also by allocating EU funds to certain projects, the European union exerts substantial power on its member states.

European Union regulations and directives shape the national legislation of each member state in order to liberalise and harmonise the EU market. An example of EU activity in transport policy is the development of Trans European Networks. These are networks linking several EU member states and hence they are considered most important to the development of the single European market. The Channel Tunnel is a prominent example, also numerous European motorways linking different states are examples of Trans European Networks. As already mentioned, through funding certain transport projects the EU exerts substantial power on its member states. This of course becomes very obvious in the case of Trans European Networks, as their development is a major goal of the European Union’s policy. There-fore, projects related to Trans European Networks often are given priority over other projects, and especially the availability of EU money is much more likely. II

^I Comp. Glaister, Transport policy in Britain, pp. 71-77.

^II Comp. Glaister, Transport policy in Britain, pp. 95-97.