Memorandum by Manchester Airport (RT 40)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Manchester Airport welcomes the opportunity
to set before the Select Committee its views on Light Rapid Transit
systems and in particular how one scheme, the proposed Metrolink
extension to Manchester Airport, is vital to the future sustainable
growth of the Airport.
1.2 The Metrolink extension to Manchester
Airport will:
— provide a realistic surface access
alternative to the private car;
— assist in reducing the level of car
parking on site;
— extend employment opportunities to
areas of the conurbation not presently well served with public
transport access to the Airport;
— contribute to social inclusion by
opening access to airport jobs in areas of high unemployment;
and
— add significantly to the viability
of the proposed Greater Manchester Metrolink network overall.
1.3 Achieving high quality, integrated public
transport via LRT schemes such as Metrolink is central to the
airport's ability to play a full part in achieving the objectives
of the Integrated Transport White Paper.
1.4 Moreover, Manchester Airport's planned
investment in a state-of-the-art Ground Transport Interchange,
including Metrolink, is a stunning example of seeking to achieve
high quality public transport links to a major employment and
commercial centre.
2. MANCHESTER
AIRPORT—THE
UK'S SECOND
AVIATION HUB
2.1 Manchester Airport is the UK's third
largest airport, with a passenger throughput of 17.8 million passengers
a year (mppa). In terms of international traffic, we are among
the world's top 20 airports—a major player in a global industry
which is experiencing faster growth than most other economic sectors.
Forecasts indicate that by 2015, 40.7 mppa will use Manchester
Airport.
2.2 The growing range and frequency of direct
international flights from Manchester, fed from its extensive
catchment area, reinforces its dominance among the UK airports
outside London, and its role as a realistic second hub alternative
to Heathrow and Gatwick for long haul flights. From being a regional
airport, Manchester has developed to become a major world airport
located in the North West region of the UK.
2.3 Manchester Airport brings massive benefits
to the city of Manchester and to the whole of the North West of
England. There are over 17,500 jobs located on site, a figure
increasing at the rate of seven jobs every day, and an estimated
35,000 further jobs sustained by the operation of the Airport.
Over the next 10 years, our growth and development has the potential
to create some 68,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region and
to generate £1.7 billion of spending power in the economy.
3. THE SURFACE
ACCESS IMPERATIVE
FOR MANCHESTER
AIRPORT
3.1 Manchester Airport, in common with other
major airport operators in the UK and elsewhere, has recognised
that maintaining excellent surface access to the site is a fundamental
requirement for future growth if it is not to become strangled
through road congestion. Manchester Airport enjoys direct links
to the motorway system, but we have long acknowledged that reliance
on the roads for airport access is not going to serve either the
local communities or the Airport business. It is not a sustainable
approach.
3.2 As part of the package of environmental
measures associated with the second runway, we have made a commitment
to our local communities through a Section 106 Planning Agreement
that by 2005, 25 per cent of all trips to the Airport will be
made by public transport.
3.3 The projected growth of Manchester Airport
to 40.7mppa by 2015, with the accompanying growth in direct on-site
and local employment, will create demand for increasing and improved
surface access to the Airport. We are committed to meeting this
growing demand through the provision of excellent public transport.
3.4 This commitment, delivered through partnerships
with other transport providers, has brought about an integrated
approach to the local transport system serving the Airport which
will be further facilitated when the intermodal Ground Transport
Interchange is completed. This facility, work on which starts
in Autumn 1999 will co-locate bus, coach and heavy rail stations,
together with the Metrolink line.
3.5 Metrolink is unlikely to serve a high
proportion of the Airport's passengers, principally as they are
drawn from a very extensive catchment area and will make greater
use of the rail network to reach Manchester using the heavy rail
link which is already in place. This already serves over 1mppa
at present, and planned extensions to the rail station will increase
the capacity of the rail link considerably.
3.6 Metrolink's role is to reduce the proportion
of commuter trips by road. The planned route for the Metrolink
extension to Manchester Airport will take in communities with
significant levels of Airport employment, and ensure that the
benefits of employment growth can be experienced in communities
most local to the site, where unemployment can be as high as 16
per cent and the incidence of car ownership is correspondingly
low.
3.7 By 2015, employee numbers at the airport
site will have risen to 40,000, which equates to 50,000 employee
journeys to and from the airport each day.
4. MANCHESTER
AIRPORT GROUND
TRANSPORT STRATEGY
4.1 We have throughout the last decade been
proactively developing alternative modes of transport and infrastructure
for airport access as we have long since recognised the need,
on sustainability grounds, to provide alternatives to the private
car.
4.2 Vehicle trips to and from Manchester
Airport averaged over 60,000 per day in 1998. This should also
be put in the context of a growing airport, providing the major
alternative to airports in the south east for air travellers from
the North, Midlands, North Wales and Southern Scotland. Forecast
growth to 40.7 million passengers and 40,000 employees on site
means that corresponding growth in the number of vehicle trips
is unsustainable. Quality alternatives to the car are needed.
4.3 The lack of an effective high quality
urban public transport system has encouraged employees to use
the car for travelling to work, particularly where unsocial hours/shift
working is involved. Until the opening of the rail link in 1993,
there was no effective public transport service for passengers.
4.4 We set out our approach and objectives
in the Manchester Airport Ground Transport Strategy, published
in 1997. Our strategy aims to make optimum use of all transport
modes. While there is an obvious presumption to make use of bus
or LRT for relatively short journeys, including commuting traffic,
we have set out to work with partners to maximise the integration
of the total network serving the airport.
4.5 To date over £60 million has been
invested in public transport infrastructure, promotions and services
at Manchester Airport:
— the airport rail link, opened in
1993, now provides regular direct services to many towns and cities
in the North and Midlands and is used by over 1 million air passengers
annually.
— a bus quality partnership with local
bus operators has delivered more services, with new low floor
buses on many airport routes, doubling the number of airport bus
users since 1995.
Work is about to start on the Ground Transport
Interchange, a £60 million project to develop a multi modal
interchange centred on the airport rail station to support and
encourage the use of public transport by passengers and employees.
4.6 The employees of the more than 250 on-site
companies account for one third of all airport trips. The Ground
Transport Strategy clearly has had to embrace this element of
travel to the Airport. Policies and initiatives to cover employee
travel were set out in the Manchester Airport Green Commuter Plan
launched in October 1998. The approach of this plan is to promote
an evolutionary rather than revolutionary change in employee travel
habits away from the car to more sustainable modes. It encourages
employees to think and choose their appropriate mode of travel,
and promotes the message that small changes in behaviour can be
made by each, to give a collective benefit to all, without having
a major impact on the lifestyle of the individual.
4.7 Many of our efforts to produce modal
switch in favour of public transport have been directed to providing
employees and passengers with attractive alternatives to the car;
we have recognised the need for measures which apply the "stick"
as well as the "carrot". Last year we informed our on
site companies and employee car park users that we were capping
the number of employee car parking spaces on site at the current
level of 4,200, and will be increasing the price to the user over
the next five years to approximately £400 per year. It is
our intention to accommodate the increased demand for employee
travel through increased choice in public transport, and not through
increased car parking. The revenue raised from charging for car
parking is available for invement in improvements in public transport
provision and in facilities such as the Ground Transport Interchange
development. Clearly, were Manchester Airport plc free from vires
constraints, this revenue could be used in commercial partnership
to leverage even greater public transport investment.
5. MANCHESTER'S
METROLINK—AN
LRT SUCCESS STORY
5.1 Within Greater Manchester, the Metrolink
LRT system has proved enormously successful. Phase 1, with lines
to Bury and Altrincham from Manchester City Centre, now carries
in excess of 13 million passengers per year compared with 7.5
million rail journeys on the rail lines it replaced, and has taken
over 2.5 million journeys a year off the road network. This success
is currently confined to a relatively small corridor through the
conurbation, and the existing system is of benefit to a relatively
small number of airport users (who use the connection to the airport
rail link at Manchester Piccadilly rail station).
5.2 The success of the first phase has led
the Greater Manchester Passenger Authority and Executive to set
the objective of creating an integrated network of LRT services
in Greater Manchester, where they are appropriate. We have co-operated
with the Authority and Executive to obtain powers to construct
a Metrolink extenstion to Manchester Airport via Wythenshawe.
The Airport Metrolink line will connect with the airport's planned
Ground Transport Interchange. A second phase of Metrolink to Salford
Quays and Eccles is being constructed, and GMPTA/E also have powers
to construct the following lines:
— to create an integrated LRT urban
network for Greater Manchester.
6. THE IMPORTANCE
OF THE
METROLINK AIRPORT
EXTENSION
6.1 We believe in providing choice, integration
between modes, quality and accessibility and are firmly of the
view that both LRT systems and buses will play an important role
in the airport public transport of the future. These assets are
crucial to our other objectives of recruiting a local labour force
and catalysing local and regional regeneration.
6.2 LRT systems such as Metrolink combine
the speed of heavy rail with the flexibility to penetrate conurbation
centres such as those to the North and East of the airport. These
benefits have been clearly demonstrated by the success of the
Manchester Metrolink LRT system. It has been successful as a transport
mode, attracting users out of their cars by combining accessibility
to its stations in urban areas, high frequency, a quality travelling
environment and low waiting times for passengers, to produce journey
times that are competitive with those in the private car. Making
use of segregated or off street running where appropriate, LRT's
provide faster and more reliable running than comparable bus journeys
which share the same congested roads as the car user.
6.3 Two major district centres, Altrincham
and Bury lie at the other ends of the Phase 1 line, providing
a balanced flow in both directions for most of the day. Manchester
Airport has now reached sufficient size to have the effect of
a district centre on a LRT network. Growth in passengers from
17.8 mppa now to over 40.7 mppa by 2015, and in employees to 40,000
by 2015 will make the airport a major trip attractor on the line
and network. In addition the airport operates 24 hours a day and
every day. This will balance and complement the flows generated
back into the City and elsewhere on the network.
6.4 The success of Metrolink on its existing
routes, and its choice above bus for an airport link, does not
imply a lesser role for bus in the overall airport access strategy.
Rather that the attributes of Metrolink: speed, frequency and
accessibility, combined with sections of off street running, will
substantially deliver increased numbers of users, and modal switch
from the car, than would bus over the same route. Without major
investment in infrastructure to remove it from other traffic along
the (airport) route, bus could not compete on journey time, passenger
perceptions or reliability.
Bus will complement Metrolink, providing links
from areas where LRT systems are difficult or impossible to construct
economically, and provide feeder services to interchange points.
6.5 Its success as a transport mode will
produce benefits other than modal switch for airport journeys
including:
— reduced traffic levels on airport
roads and along its route, leading to reduced congestion and lower
emissions from traffic;
— reduced demand for car parking on
site, especially from employees, who are expected to be major
user of Metrolink;
— greater social inclusion as a result
of creating a fully accessible system, which will deliver economic
benefits from better access to airport jobs, and will strengthen
the role of the airport as a provider of employment to local communities.
6.6 As with heavy rail, LRT systems have
a degree of permanence that cannot be matched by conventional
road based public transport such as buses. Users acquire a confidence
in its reliability both to deliver service to the timetable, and
in the long term that the service will continue to be provided.
This high degree of permanence and reliability, will over time,
influence location decisons that will see a redistribution of
airport employee home locations and ancillary businesses along
the Metrolink LRT route.
6.7 It is unlikely that the airport's ground
transport objectives can be fulfilled by its heavy rail and bus
networks alone. Metrolink provides a level of integration and
accessibility unmatched by bus or rail, but its benefits will
be reinforced by it being part of an integrated transport system
for both Greater Manchester and airport access. Metrolink already
links with bus and rail services in Manchester. Its success as
an airport transport system will be enhanced by its inclusion
within the airport's Ground Transport Interchange, enabling local
users to connect with airport bus, coach and train services, as
well as air travel.
7. FEATURES OF
THE MANCHESTER
AIRPORT METROLINK
LINE
7.1 Powers were granted to GMPTE in 1997
for the Airport Metrolink line. We supported GMPTE in their application,
and at the Inquiry by giving evidence in support of the scheme.
We have, in addition, provided financial support, to the extent
of £2.5 million, towards land and property acquisitions.
7.2 The Airport Line will create a new public
transport route along most of its length, and reduce journey times
for passengers living on its route. Leaving the existing Phase
1 line from Manchester to Altrincham at Trafford Bar, the line
will pass through the suburbs of Firswood, Chorlton, Sale Moor
and Wythenshawe before reaching the Airport. The line will pass
through the Airport to serve Wythenshawe Civic Centre, Wythenshawe
Hospital (another large local employer) and a number of other
regeneration sites in the Wythenshawe area.
7.3 It is one of our stated sustainability
objectives to recruit a local labour force. Unemployment alone
most of the Airport Metrolink line is higher than the national
average, especially in the Wythenshawe district, which also has
SRB status. One of the barriers to Wythenshawe residents getting
access to airport jobs is transport. Low car ownership goes hand
in hand with high unemployment; this is exactly the case in Wythenshawe.
In the 1991 census covering the Airport Metrolink corridor, only
49 per cent of households own one or more cars compared to 71
per cent in the Phase 1 corridor, and 16 per cent of inhabitants
were unemployed compared to 7 per cent in the Phase 1 corridor.
Wythenshawe residents are thus disadvantaged, compared to other
districts with higher car ownership, when it comes to being able
to travel to work.
7.4 There are strong reasons to believe
that an Airport Metrolink line will attract new users and generate
modal shift. Since 1995 we have provided funding to enhance local
bus services, targeting particularly extra early morning and weekend
services to suit employees travelling to work from local residential
districts. Many airport bus services pass through Wythenshawe,
and Wythenshawe bus mode share is higher than the average for
all airport employees. Metrolink will be expected to perform much
better than buses on the evidence gained from the operation of
the Phase 1 system.
7.5 Air passenger use of the Metrolink extension
is expected to be low in comparison to other categories of user,
for a variety of reasons. The majority of Manchester Airport passengers
originate from throughout the North of England and Midlands. There
is thus a low level of air passengers originating in the Metrolink
corridor compared to other users. The Manchester Airport Metrolink
line will not provide a city centre/Airport link in the way that
the London Underground Piccadilly line does for Heathrow. Heavy
rail will continue to provide the main public transport service
for air passengers travelling to Manchester. Metrolink services
complement and do not compete with rail, providing access to a
high quality LRT urban transport system throughout Greater Manchester.
7.6 Forecasts have been prepared to demonstrate
the potential of an Airport Metrolink line. With the same level
of parking supply as today (a hypothetical situation where supply
meets demand), Metrolink would attract 860,000 employee trips
per annum by 2015. However, we have already set the policy objective
not to increase the number of employee car park spaces beyond
the current level (4,200), and to manage demand through increased
availability of public transport. In this scenario, with parking
restraint, it is anticipated that 1,400,000 employee journeys
will be generated annually.
7.7 We have commented earlier on the potential
for Metrolink or other LRT systems to trigger redistribution of
airport employee home residences. The effect of redistribution
and parking restraint is to increase further Metrolink patronage
by 600,000 trips per annum or 2 million in total by 2015.
7.8 Air passenger use of the Metrolink extension
is forecast to be relatively low at less than 100,000 trips per
annum. Overall passenger numbers for the Airport Metrolink line
are expected to reach 8.5 million by 2015.
7.9 Non user benefits for the Phase 1 lines
from Bury and Altrincham have been calculated from experience
gained with operation. Over 2.5 million car journeys per annum
have been taken off the road network as a result, and traffic
volumes on the parallel roads into Mancheser reduced by 2 per
cent and 8 per cent. Whilst these are small in absolute terms,
they can make a noticeable difference to the levels of congestion
on roads affected. Initial forecasts predict that the Airport
Metrolink line will remove 13,000 airport employee vehicle kilometres
per day.
8. MANCHESTER
AIRPORT—INVESTMENT
IN THE
METROLINK SYSTEM
8.1 The shareholders of Manchester Airport
plc are Manchester City Council and the other nine districts which
are the successor bodies to the Greater Manchester County. The
ownership structure means that the Airport company's commercial
activities are limited to the powers (vires) of those local authorities.
8.2 while these constraints might still
arguably allow for the Airport company to invest in the project
to extend Metrolink to Manchester Airport itself, the company's
powers do not extend to investment in the enlargement of the Metrolink
network overall. This is central to the difficulty faced by the
company, because the best value from Manchester's Metrolink system
will be realised when the city has a network which enables the
user to access a far greater proportion of the conurbation, travelling
on branches of Metrolink line, than can be achieved by the system
as it operates currently.
8.3 Extending the network line by line denies
the system the gains which could be had from the parallel construction
of the network as presently envisaged, and means that the operators
are denied the returns which are to be had from the added passenger
usage which would accrue to a comprehensive, city-wide Metrolink
network.
8.4 The situation faced by the Airport is
a prime example of how its vires constraints operate to narrowly
confine investment opportunities. The piecemeal development of
Metrolink is clearly not the best option for the Metrolink system
users, potential users or its present and prospective operators.
However, while Manchester Airport stands ready to invest in the
development of the Airport extension, with all the benefits that
will bring to the Airport, the city and the Metrolink system,
it cannot enter into the wider network development which represents
the most valuable way forward for all concerned. This cannot be
right, and the vires constraints on Manchester Airport as a business
engaged as a major player in many areas of the regional economy,
public transport among them, must be addressed by Government.
9. CONCLUSION
9.1 The development of the Metrolink system
in Manchester, and particularly the Manchester Airport extension,
is of crucial importance to the future of the city, the region
and the Airport itself. Manchester Airport is making every effort
not only to enhance public transport access to the site but also
to integrate all the surface access modes to bring added value
to Manchester's burgeoning integrated transport network and deliver
Government policy.
9.2 Manchester Airport is a sufficiently
busy destination for the proposed Metrolink extension, which covers
a heavily populated suburban area, to warrant the levels of investment
necessary to build it. The great potential of the extension to
take car trips off the local road system, and reduce the demand
for staff car parking, means that the scheme will make a major
contribution to achieving the Airport's Ground Transport Strategy
and Government policy objectives. In fact, the target set by the
Airport for the proportion of surface access to be achieved by
public transport (25 per cent by 2005) may prove unreachable without
it.
9.3 Manchester Airport wants to ensure that
the Metrolink extension is built, and is prepared to invest heavily
in bringing light rail into the Airport site and the planned state-of-the-art
Ground Transport Interchange. The best way forward for the development
of the Metrolink system has been shown to be the parallel construction
of branches that will provide for a city-wide network of lines
to serve the widest catchment area. However, investment in the
city-wide scheme on a normal commercial basis is at present outside
the powers of the Airport and its local authority shareholders.
The Committee is requested to consider how the Government should
act to remove the vires constraints on Manchester Airport's owners
to ensure that any investment the Airport makes in the Metrolink
network can produce a proper return.
9.4 Light rail systems, such as the Greater
Manchester Metrolink network, have demonstrated clear success;
attracting users away from their cars in numbers far in excess
of other public transport modes. Manchester Airport seeks to capture
that demand for light rail and to maximise both the social inclusion
and access to employment benefits it brings, as well as the environmental
benefits of increased public transport use.
October 1999
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