For all the discussion around connectivity in UK transport, there is still one part of the conversation that feels misunderstood: that of labour market connectivity.
It comes up often in conversations about the Northern Powerhouse, but it is usually treated as a knock-on benefit of infrastructure rather than a central issue in its own right. That matters, because transport is not just about moving people around. It shapes what opportunities feel realistic, which jobs people apply for, and how far employers feel able to look for talent.
At a recent National Railway Museum event that I had the pleasure to attend, Northern Powerhouse Partnership CEO Henri Murison made an interesting point. Transport really matters when it changes what people and organisations are able to do. That moves the conversation away from projects as badges of ambition and political achievement, and instead asks the more practical question of what actually changes for people once those projects are in place.
Without reliable connectivity, opportunity becomes patchy. Some towns, cities or suburbs end up with skills that are underused, while better-connected areas build deeper labour pools and attract more investment.
Transport affects whether people can reach jobs reliably, and whether employers can look beyond the immediate local area. DfT accessibility analysis suggests that access to employment is closely linked to the likelihood of being in work, with journey time and service availability acting as both enabler and barrier.
On the ground, that plays out in very practical ways: candidates rule out roles because the commute does not stack up. Employers assume the talent pool is smaller than it should be. Recruitment areas become ever-decreasing circles.
That has considerable ramifications because hiring geography is not always a conscious decision. Organisations rarely sit down and draw a hard line around where they will recruit. More often, they adapt to what feels reliable. Candidates do the same. Over time, opportunity gathers in places where journeys are realistic day after day.
Comparisons between the North and London are often made, but are often misguided. The more useful distinction is between places where labour markets work as connected networks and places where they do not.
That difference shows up in how far employers feel able to look when hiring, and how much confidence they have when thinking about expansion. Where access to talent feels uncertain, plans can become more cautious – even leading to wholesale relocation to solve the 'problem'.
Businesses may not perceive this as a transport problem, but unreliable journeys have a significant impact on talent accessibility and can make investment feel riskier than it should.
Years of changing plans, delayed timelines and cancelled schemes have cast long shadows. For commuters, it makes it difficult to organise working lives around public transport. For employers, it becomes safer to plan around what exists today rather than what might arrive in the future.
Bizarrely, distance itself is not always the issue. Manchester and Leeds are close enough on a map, but maps do not show the hassle, the interchange, or the knowledge that one missed connection can be a very big deal indeed. This is why the car still dominates across much of the North. It is often less about preference and more about certainty.
One of the most practical questions now is whether rail, bus and local transport can start to feel more like one network. At the moment, passengers often experience them as separate systems with separate priorities. But people do not think in modes of transport. They think in door-to-door journeys.
When services connect properly and are predictable, behaviour changes. A job in another town starts to feel realistic and employers can look further afield with confidence.
Better connectivity has the potential to both widen labour pools and make more opportunities feel within reach, and that is good for the economy and good for the country.
Genuine transport connectivity represents an opportunity to level up and it was extremely heartening to hear HM King Charles seeking "...a fair deal for the North of England through Northern Powerhouse Rail..." in his parliamentary address last month.
Connecting people to jobs, and the growth that promotes, are the real drivers for transport investment in the North. Not how ambitious a scheme appears to be.
A transport scheme must make everyday mobility easier and give people a wider set of choices. When mobility does not change, the outcomes do not change much either and that must be the real measure of success or failure.
