Following his impressive win this weekend, Jeremy Corbyn has set about establishing his shadow cabinet.
Update: Lilian Greenwood MP for Nottingham South has been appointed shadow transport secretary. She has both union experience having worked as a regional official for Unison and transport experience. In 2011 she took a responsibility for Labour's local transport brief then in 2013 switched to the shadow rail brief.
Communities secretary, a role that also has influence over local transport in areas such as buses, will be taken up by Jon Trickett MP for Hemsworth, a backbench rebel for much of the Blair years.
A central plank of Mr Corbyn’s campaign was the call for a renationalised railway network.
‘Each rail franchise should be taken into public ownership as it comes up for renewal, allowing a coordinated approach based upon the public interest,’ he said.
This goes one step further than former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s plan to allow a state-owned companies to bid against private operators for franchises. An idea somewhat disparaged by rail expert Christian Wolmar on Transport Network. Mr Wolmar lost this weekend to Sadiq Khan in the race to be the Labour Party's candidate for London mayor.
Apart from the renationalisation of the railways, transport is one area where Mr Corbyn might be closer to his Conservative rivals than he would perhaps care to admit.
As part of his desire to rebalance the economy, in culture and geography, Mr Corbyn has called for the devolution of London-style powers across the country.
This blanket change would be different to the more targeted, bilateral approach to devolution taken by the Government and seen in the City Deals and the devolution bids handed into Westminster earlier this month.
However this does continue a direction of travel towards more intelligent, powerful local clients franchising out integrated networks.
Mr Corbyn said: ‘As an essential first step, cities across the country should have the same powers over transport that London was given by the last Labour government. This would allow them to regulate their own rail, tram and bus networks, make their own decisions about charges for parking and congestion, and better plan the correct mix for themselves.’
He has added elsewhere that the mandatory tendering of transport services to private sector bidders ‘must be abandoned, so our towns, cities and villages can make the right decisions for themselves’.
He also wants to use a National Investment Bank – paid for by quantative easing or ending ‘tax reliefs and subsidies’ for corporations – to pay for more infrastructure and rebalance transport spending towards the north.
While Mr Corbyn has labelled the Government’s Northern Powerhouse plans a ‘cruel deception’, the aim of his policy would be in theory to bring about a similar large-scale investment in northern transport.
He would also continue the major rail electrification programme that has seen a somewhat shaky start. Mr Corbyn has capitalised on this by promising to restart the suspended electrification plans for the TransPennine and Midland Mainline routes.
There is similar ground over the updating of rolling stock. The Government has tried to pursue a populist but controversial policy of replacing Pacer trains in the north. However the policy is not deemed to be good value for money by the civil service.
Mr Corbyn has called for the chance to ‘redevelop the skills and expertise at building our own rolling stock here in Britain as part of an overall industrial strategy’.
Apart from the policy landscape, Mr Corbyn’s victory could prompt a shift in industrial relations, already fairly fraught after a summer of strike actions.
It is widely reported that union bosses, buoyed by Mr Corbyn’s victory, are envisioning a stronger push on anti-austerity protest.
The one false step in his campaign, the consideration of women-only train carriages, is likely to be dropped. Though it is also likely that passenger groups, unions and other representative bodies will have more of a voice in shaping policy and potential service delivery under Mr Corbyn's Labour leadership.
