Describe an improvement to local transport that you found useful.
A card about better buses, a new cycle lane, contactless ticketing or a reopened station. It works best when you compare the journey before and after.
Describe an improvement to local transport that you found useful.
You should say:
- what the improvement was
- where and when it was introduced
- how it changed your journey
- explain why it was useful to the wider community
You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make notes if you wish.
How to approach this card
Name the improvement precisely and anchor it in time and place: 'the 42 bus now runs every ten minutes instead of every half hour, introduced about two years ago'. Vague answers about 'better transport' are hard to sustain, so commit to one change you have actually used.
The third bullet, 'how it changed your journey', invites a before-and-after structure. Describe the old journey briefly — the waiting, the changes between buses, the unreliable times — then the new one, and quantify where you can: twenty minutes saved, one change instead of two.
For the final bullet, step outside your own routine: shift workers, students, people who cannot drive. The common mistake is spending so long on your own commute that the community angle gets one sentence at the end, so plan your minute of preparation to give the last bullet proper time.
Band 9 sample answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and penalise them — use this model to study structure and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the sample answer
I'm going to talk about the night bus route that was introduced in my city about two years ago — the N14, which runs along the main corridor from the centre out to the university district and the hospital. Before it existed, the last regular bus left at around eleven, which meant anyone finishing a late shift — nurses, kitchen staff, security guards — faced either an expensive taxi or a forty-minute walk. I found this out personally when I worked evening shifts at a restaurant during my studies; the walk home in winter was genuinely the worst part of the job. The improvement itself was simple: the same route, but running every forty minutes through the night. What made it work, I think, is that they put it on the corridor where the night workers actually are — past the hospital, the industrial kitchens, the halls of residence — rather than designing it for weekend partygoers, though they use it too. Why did I find it useful? Beyond my own shifts, it changed the maths of the whole evening economy for people without cars. And there's a fairness dimension I only appreciated later: daytime transport serves everyone, but night transport specifically serves the people doing the jobs nobody sees. When the service survived its trial year and became permanent, there was a genuine sense that, for once, something had been built for them.
Why this works: The answer grounds a public-policy topic in one personal detail (the winter walk home) which keeps it a story rather than an essay. It handles the 'why useful' bullet on two levels — personal and social — and the vocabulary ('the maths of the evening economy', 'a fairness dimension') is advanced but conversational.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- rush hour
The busiest travel periods at the start and end of the working day.
- a direct route
A journey without changes; a strong, simple phrase.
- to run on time
Natural collocation for reliable services.
- a cycle lane
The marked part of a road reserved for bicycles.
- contactless payment
Paying by card or phone without cash; useful for ticketing improvements.
- to cut journey times
Standard collocation for making trips faster.
Part 3 discussion questions
In the test, the examiner follows your long turn with a discussion on the same theme. Practise answering these with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
- 1Why is it difficult to persuade people to use public transport?
- 2Should city centres restrict private cars?
- 3How can transport be made more convenient for older people?
- 4What are the risks of relying on one transport technology?
- 5Will shorter journeys become more important in city planning?