Rural campaigners urge cutting of transport journey times to small town residents

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has used an article on The Guardian website to urge local government leaders to reduce travel times by public transport from towns to larger urban areas to secure their economic success.

The CPRE uses the article to praise London boroughs that have allocated new housing according to where areas "are graded on a scale which takes into account factors such as walking time to public transport, as well as number and frequency of services at nearby stops". It wants local authorities and sub-national transport bodies "to apply similar methods to smaller towns," and not allow homes that cannot easily access the rail network without a car.

Trinley Walker, policy and research advisor, points to 2009 University of Lincoln research on travel times to towns and claims that Fareham "is one of the country's most car-dependent towns" despite good rail links due to the location of new housing. He highlights a new paper from the CPRE advocating the bringing together of planning and transport decisions, and praises the Government for identifying sites near railway stations for high-density development.