UK transport performance underwhelms as European innovation moves south and east

The UK languishes in the middle or bottom of EU league tables of transport innovation apart from on the topic of road safety, where it has edged ahead of the Netherlands.

The EU transport scorecard highlights that the U.K has the worst congestion on major roads of all 27 member states, with average drivers spending 41.5 hours in congestion a year, behind Finland and Estonia with half that score. It has the fourteenth highest consumer satisfaction with urban transport, behind Estonia, Hungary and Greece, based on the 'market performance indicator'. And the twelfth best road quality based on an World Economic Forum survey, behind best-placed the Netherlands, and Croatia and Spain.

It has the 20th worst percentage of electrified railways, 33% of its network, compared to 76% in the Netherlands and 71% in Bulgaria, and the twelfth highest percentage of newly registered alternative fuel passenger vehicles of 1.1%, compared to 12.8% in Italy and 12.6% in the Netherlands and 1.9% in the Czech Republic. And 11 member states have higher numbers of electric vehicle charging points, with Netherlands leading the way with 145 per 100,000 city inhabitants and the U.K on 20, behind countries including Slovenia (48).

But for persons dying within 30 days of a road accident per million inhabitants, the U.K is the third best with a score of 28, ahead of Netherlands this year, and only behind Sweden (27) and Malta (26).