Memorandum by FirstGroup (RT 35)
LIGHT RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEMS
1. INTRODUCTION
FirstGroup PLC is a major international public
transport operator with a market capitalisation of £1.4 billion
on the UK Stock Exchange.
The Group's subsidiary companies operate a total
of nearly 10,000 buses in the UK, 24 per cent of the total local
bus market. Three rail franchises are operated, First Great Western,
First Great Eastern and First North Western and the Group has
a controlling 51 per cent share in Bristol International Airport.
Internationally Group subsidiary companies are responsible for
the operation of some 10,000 school buses in the USA and, in joint
venture, 700 local service buses in Hong Kong.
The Group supports the Government's Transport
Policy, is a keen participant in some 40 Quality Partnership corridor
agreements and invests heavily in public transport. Current investment
in new buses totals almost £100 million per annum, over £100
million of new trains are in order for the Group's rail franchises
and the Group is committed to long term investment in quality
public transport.
The term "Light Rapid Transit Systems"
covers a number of guided transit modes, but principally involves
light electric rail and various systems for guided buses. The
Group takes the view that light electric rail systems will only
be justified on cost benefit grounds on a relatively small number
of extremely busy corridors in the major cities. Guided bus systems
are more flexible and much cheaper and therefore would be cost
effective far more widely, but for the vast majority of corridors
the most cost effective solution will be fast, frequent conventional
bus services operated by state of the art vehicles using effective
bus priority measures.
2. THE GROUP'S
INVOLVEMENT IN
LIGHT RAPID
TRANSIT SYSTEMS
The Group has significant experience in several
forms of LRT.
It is currently the only operator of Kerb Guided
Bus Transit systems in the UK, with existing operations in Ipswich
and Leeds.
It is the preferred bidder for the City of Edinburgh
Rapid Transit system guided bus scheme (CERT) and the major operator
on the second project in Leeds for kerb guided bus, the York Road
corridor (East Leeds Quality Bus Initiative).
FirstGroup is a member of the Consortium (Tramtrack
Croydon Ltd) (TCL) which won the concession to design, build,
operate and maintain the Croydon Tramlink project. A FirstGroup
subsidiary company, Tram Operations Ltd, will operate the system
when it opens, before the end of this year.
The Group is also involved in discussions in
respect of other Light Rail schemes, notably in Bristol and Portsmouth,
and further kerb guided bus schemes, the most advanced being projects
in Bradford and Manchester.
3. THE SUCCESS
OF EXISTING
SCHEMES
(A) Leeds
The kerb guided bus scheme on the Scott Hall
Road services in North Leeds was opened in four phases between
1995 and 1998 and involves 2 kilometres of guideway in several
sections either in the central reservation or adjacent to the
carriageway up to bottleneck points, mainly roundabouts, particularly
in morning peak periods inwards to Leeds, or outward from Leeds
at the evening peak period. The scheme also involves 0.5 kilometres
of conventioanl bus lane and other priority measures.
The bus guideway bypasses queuing traffic then
activates its green phase of traffic lights, to enable the bus
to emerge at the head of the queue. A park and ride site, currently
used by some 50 cars daily, is available at the outer end of the
corridor where the services fan out to provide fast frequent services
to a number of housing estates.
The services require some 30 peak vehicles,
all of which are state of the art low flat floor low emission
engined single deck or articulated buses with flat access for
wheelchair passengers at guideway stops—the buses have a
built in ramp for use at other stops. A small rota of drivers
trained in customer care operates the services which are supported
by high quality marketing, with regular service adjustments to
meet customer suggestions submitted on passenger survey cards.
Construction of the guideway was not controversial
with local residents, even those who lost their grass central
reservation to accommodate the guideway.
The services have been well supported with growing
patronage. Recent surveys indicate that patronage growth has been
up to 65 per cent as compared with four years ago.
As the services are faster than cars to the
city centre at peak times, and can achieve the same end to end
journey times at peak and off peak they are regarded as different
from normal bus services and have attracted former car travellers
at both peak and off peak times. Regular surveys indicate that
up to half of the growth in patronage is as a result of passengers
transferring from cars.
The success of the services has prompted the
quality partnership involving West Yorkshire PTE, Leeds City Council
and FirstGroup to press Central Government for authority and funding
for a second larger scheme in east Leeds.
(B) Ipswich
The Ipswich guided bus scheme, with a 1 kilometre
guideway joining two estates without direct road links, has enjoyed
similar growth and success since its introduction in 1995. In
the four years since then, passenger numbers have grown by 68
per cent on the route using the guideway.
It is envisaged that the guided bus services
will be enhanced during 2000-2001 under a Quality Partnership
with the Local Authority. Under the proposal the guided section
will be widened to accept full width state of the art low floor
low emission engined buses as planned when the project was originally
implemented.
4. FIRSTGROUP'S
COMMITMENT TO
FORTHCOMING SCHEMES
(A) Croydon Tramlink
The Croydon scheme is fully described in the
enclosed brochure. It will operate under a 99-year concession
granted by London Transport to TCL, in which, as described, FirstGroup
is a shareholder.
(B) East Leeds Quality Bus Initiative
FirstGroup will be the major operator on the
second major project for kerb guided buses in Leeds on the York
Road Corridor—the East Leeds Quality Bus Initiative which
involves the operation of some 70 peak vehicles on services including
2 kilometres of guideway and 3½ kilometres of additional
bus lane.
Work commences on the £10 million project
in Autumn 1999, with completion scheduled for Spring 2001. The
provision of £5 million funding has been secured from central
government with the balance of £5 million towards the infrastructure
costs being committed by FirstGroup and Arriva. Additionally new
state of the art buses will be committed to the services. It is
envisaged that significant patronage growth will be generated.
(C) City of Edinburgh Rapid Transit (CERT)
FirstGroup is a member of the ConCERT consortium
together with Edison Capital and Abbey National—ConCERT
is the preferred bidder for the City of Edinburgh Rapid Transit
scheme (CERT) linking the Airport with the City Centre with a
kerb guided busway some 9 kilometres in length.
The scheme will require 36 state of the art
buses and will open in early 2002 at a total cost of £50
million.
(D) Bradford Manchester Road
FirstGroup will also be the major operator on
a guided bus scheme for Manchester Road Bradford,a £10 million
project to commence in Spring 2001. The Group has offered to contribute
£1 million to infrastructure costs in addition to using state
of the art buses on the corridor.
(E) Other projects
In addition to some 40 Quality Partnerships
covering major corridors, development of further substantial corridors
is being progressed throughout the UK. The Group is also involved
in detailed discussions in proposed LRT schemes in Bristol and
Portsmouth.
5. THE FUTURE
FOR LIGHT
RAPID TRANSIT
SCHEMES—A "HORSES
FOR COURSES"
APPROACH
FirstGroup would wish to see the development
of a "horses for courses" policy for Light Rapid Transit
schemes as part of an integrated transport policy, in order to
fully exploit the substantial flexibility that public transport
can provide in contributing to the resolution of urban traffic
congestion.
The optimum public transport solution corridor
by corridor, city by city needs to be developed to reflect the
individual characteristics of the corridor and city. In many cases,
this is currently being developed within Quality Partnerships.
The factors which govern the appropriate solution
include:
(A) The characteristics of the city centre
served:
— parking capacity and charging policy
— nature of shopping/business/industrial
traffic generators
(B) The nature of the corridor served:
— level and density of housing estates
— traffic generators on the corridor
— business
— shopping
— industrial
— recreational
— educational;
— current traffic flows, both public
transport and cars;
— expected growth in traffic flows,
public transport and cars;
— current and projected patronage levels;
— scope for incorporating pro public
transport measures in socially, environmentally acceptable manner—bus
lane, park and ride, guideways, LRT track and overhead power supply;
Light rail rapid transit solutions are most
appropriate where there are high levels of existing or potential
passenger flows:
— high density passenger flows between
a relatively small number of nodes;
— high density housing within half
mile of corridor;
— very large traffic generators within
half mile of the corridor;
— maximum scope for providing off road
track on the corridor using median strips, adjacent spare land,
and, new bespoke developments incorporating LRT facilities;
— minimum need for track provision
on existing congested stretches of road, junctions, etc;
— scope for incorporting stops with
safe, level boarding arrangements for passengers.
Guided bus solutions are most appropriate for
corridors with:
— relatively high density housing spread
over a wider area with the corridor as the "spine" linking
them to the traffic generators;
— large traffic generators, in some
numbers located in various areas around the corridor which provides
the "spine" linking them;
— scope for providing bespoke sections
of guideway either along most of the corridor, or at key bottlenecks
on the corridor allowing the bus to bypass traffic congestion
pinch points.
Bespoke bus priority measures are appropriate
for the vast majority of corridors which serve:
— a large number of housing developments
scattered around the "spine" corridor;
— a large number of traffic generators
spread around the corridor;
— a very large number of complex medium
to heavy level traffic flows, with the major flows being to or
from the urban centre at peak times, which can only be effectively
served by a pattern of frequent high quality bus services with
appropriate high quality bus priority measures at bottleneck points.
Thus, light fixed track transit systems provide
a high cost solution most cost effective for very high passenger
flows between a relatively small number of origin and destination
points where a substantial proportion of the system can be off
road or in dedicated streets.
Guided buses offer the vast majority of advantages
of fixed track systems at lower cost (20 per cent—50 per
cent of the equivalent LRT) but in general have a lower capacity
of passengers per hour and a rather lower ability to attract car
passengers as they are perceived as less of a step change from
conventional buses than light rail systems. However this can be
overcome to a large degree by providing state of the art buses
with interior features akin to light rail vehicles and as they
are more flexible they can offer similar lower end to end journey
times to a larger number of passengers.
The vast majority of urban corridors can most
efficiently and cost effectively be served by a fleet of flexible
state of the art buses operating reliable high frequency services
supported by effective bus priority measures, high quality shelters
at stops, strong marketing, etc.
6. ACHIEVING
THE GOAL
Local Authorities and PTEs are through their
Local Transport Plans, working in Quality Partnerships with operators
keen to invest in high quality public transport. These plans,
it is hoped will develop a comprehensive integrated transport
policy incorporating the appropriate mix of heavy rail, light
rail, guided bus and high quality general bus services supported
by bus priority measures. However, even if the optimum mix was
achieved to provide an effective integrated transport system,
this alone would not in all cases resolve traffic congestion,
as new car borne traffic would be generated to fill any space
created by a switch to public transport.
FirstGroup therefore support the Governments
policy of developing a fair and equitable system of charging for
scarce urban road space and work place parking charging, balanced
by an optimised integrated public transport system, with developments
funded by bypothecated revenues from the urban car restraint and
private investment. Such a policy can win widespread public support
if it is sensitively planned.
The revenues so generated would be very considerable,
and could support the development of light rapid transit systems
where appropriate. However, it would be important to ensure that
the "horses for courses" approach is followed, that
best practice and value for money assessments are thoroughly carried
out and that the appropriate balanced integrated transport system
achieved.
If public support for such a policy can be achieved,
it will be hard won and could be undermined if there is a perception
created either that the money is not appropriately hypothecated,
or is used to develop "white elephant" systems inappropriate
to, or out of scale with local needs.
FirstGroup would therefore propose that any
scheme for which the infrastructure costs exceed £10 million
should be called in by the DETR and asssessed to ensure it meets
an established set of value for money criteria.
Guided busway construction is technically well
understood, relatively simple, and needs in any case only to be
actioned where buses cannot freely run in other traffic. Thus
very substantial benefits can be gained from relatively small
pieces of guideway construction. Future growth of guideways is
strongly recommended and the Leeds example demonstrates that government
policy will be very much assisted by encouraging guided busways
where appropriate. Much encouragement can be given by government
endorsement of worthwhile schemes during current and future consideration
of Local Transport Plans.
So far as light rail schemes go, there will
always be a relatively limited number of viable schemes, both
from the part of view of corridors with existing high volumes
of public transport patronage and financial viability. Such schemes,
however, should not be discouraged generally as they apparently
have been in recent government policy, but it should be indicated
that government policy is only to support such schemes where existing
and potential volumes of traffic justify them. As it is, there
are a number of projects on which significant development money
has been spent which seem unlikely to go ahead and where cheaper
solutions would be quicker to implement.
On the other hand, extension to existing light
rail systems may well be good value as incremental capital costs
will be less.
The most recent schemes, Croydon and Nottingham,
are ones in which PFI funding techiques has been used successfully,
although significant public money is still always needed. FirstGroup
believes that a two stage PFI process, in which the operator is
selected first, would be beneficial and practical. Schemes should
have early operator input, to ensure the maximum commercial and
operational viability; construction partners could come on board
as a second phase.
In the PFI process, risk allocation takes much
time and is costly in legal fees; previous experience and a degree
of reality from both private and public sector will minimise this
cost
The unfair burden of the cost of utilities diversions,
recently increased by Government, contributes to the high capital
cost of light rail schemes; as will charging for the time of the
Railway Inspectorate, a proposal currently being made by the Health
and Safety Executive.
It is, however, believed that the greatest encouragement
that could be given to light rapid transit is to encourage the
growth of bus priorities on all major urban corridors, so as to
enable the public trasnport market to grow and support the more
expensive enhancements to guided busways and light rail.
8 October 1999
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