The transport resilience strategy sets out the government’s approach to strengthening the resilience of the UK transport system over the next 5 to 10 years.
The strategy explains how the government will work with the industry to understand risks, reduce vulnerabilities, and improve preparedness for disruption across the transport system.
The strategy sets out what the UK Government Resilience Action Plan means in practice for the transport sector, by applying its 3 primary objectives for transport:
1. Continuously assess how resilient the UK transport sector is, so interventions and resources can be targeted effectively.
2. Enable the whole transport system, including transport users, to take action to increase resilience.
3. Strengthen government’s transport resilience capabilities.
It also commits to delivering a tailored transport resilience training package for transport operators and local partners alongside a transport sector-wide network to support collaboration, share learning and strengthen resilience across the system.
During the strategies announcement on Monday 2 November, Keir Mather, Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Logistics, said that a “secure and resilient” transport system is “essential” to delivering economic growth across the UK. He admitted that the threats the system is facing are becoming more “complex and unpredictable”, with its “interconnectedness” meaning that disruption can occur in one place and have sudden consequences elsewhere - “affirming the importance of building resilience across the system” as a whole.
The strategy has made 22 practical commitments to improve transport resilience, including the delivery of a new training initiative, the Transport Resilience Academy and the establishment of a sector-wide transport resilience network. Mather hopes that these initiatives will help to strengthen collaboration, connections and understanding across the transport system and other sectors – allowing them to share evidence and best practice and address common risks together.
“Transport resilience is a whole-government, whole-sector, and whole-society endeavour. No single organisation can deliver it alone.”
CILT(UK) look forward to working with the Department for Transport to inform the implementation of the strategy and help improve resilience across the UK transport system over the coming years.