The UK government has seen rapid change after the abrupt resignation of the transport secretary followed by her swift replacement with a former transport official from London.

The shock resignation of the former Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, has been superseded by the rapid appointment of Heidi Alexander as her replacement. The cabinet ministry was vacant for less than five hours, following Haigh’s resignation at six o’clock this morning (29 November). The emergence of a past and relatively minor criminal conviction was given as the reason for her rapid departure.

The transport industry is coming to terms with a new minister in charge of all related matters, and empowered to deliver government policy. After the abrupt departure of Louise Haigh, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer has wasted no time in appointing a replacement. The new minister, now in charge of the Department for Transport and already installed at 55 Horseferry Road, London, is Heidi Alexander – a sitting member of parliament for the Swindon South constituency, and already a junior minister in the Justice Department.

Commitment to town and country

Heidi Alexander comes to the Department for Transport with a selection of all the right credentials. Privately, it is believed that she was considered for the post when Keir Starmer was assembling his cabinet in the morning after the 4 July election, which saw the socialist Labour Party retake office after fourteen years of right-wing Conservative government.

The new transport secretary is leaving the Justice Department, but it could be argued that transport is a greater part of her political career. She won a seat for the Labour Party in the July General Election for the constituency of Swindon South. The town, 80 miles (130 km) west of London, is most renowned for its association with the railway. Swindon grew massively around the now repurposed Great Western Railway Works, established in the town by the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Mixed metaphors but straight talking required

More currently, Heidi Alexander had an interregnum from parliamentary politics during the last decade. She worked for over three years as London’s deputy mayor for transport – alongside the elected (Labour) mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. She was also deputy head of Transport for London and was in post for the opening of the Elizabeth Line – which has become the busiest passenger railway in the UK.

Her portfolio is now vastly broadened. The Transport Secretary will be expected to enter into the new office with all the vigour she has already promised for her constituents. “This is the moment we press the reset button for the country,” she said at her election in Swindon. “To get our economy firing on all cylinders. To restore honesty, decency and integrity to politics.”

Careful consideration required

Her choice of metaphors may well be cast up to her immediately. Many transport policies which she will pick up are aimed at decarbonising the transport network – eliminating cylinders and replacing them with fuel cells. She will also have public transport interests lobbying her across a range of issues, from rising bus fares to abandoned rail developments. She will also find the rail freight industry knocking on her door, almost as quickly as she has been appointed.

The previous Transport Secretary had made a vigorous point of courting the passenger sector and was behind very public initiatives, including confirmation of bringing the HS2 high-speed rail project into central London (at Euston). Ms Alexander will, however, have immediate opportunities to rebuild relations with the freight sector. Her predecessor had struggled with the delicate balances in that sphere – most notably when her comments regarding P&O Ferries came to the attention of DP World, the owners of that shipping line – and a company behind several projects centric to rail freight, including the highly successful modal shift programme at the Port of Southampton.

Heidi Alexander would do well to take more than the brief pause shown by her Prime Minister and consider at length the intricacies of the transport portfolio. The office is often regarded in abstraction. In reality, it is intertwined with all the major departments of government. She will find that the network concept is not confined to the railways. Tugging on one thread always carries the danger of unravelling the entire transport tapestry.