Examination of Witnesses (Questions 12480
- 12499)
12480. You then turn to another factor that
might underpin growth, that is, the question of rail heading,
slide 20.[51]
Tell us what rail heading is.
(Mr Reed) We could not find a
rail heading definition but we have defined rail heading as the
use of a more distant rail station to the start of the journey
in preference to nearer rail services to access more frequent
or faster rail services. We believe that rail heading can also
occur where passengers make use of the benefits of accessing the
rail network very close to its starting point. This provides a
perceived benefit of getting a seat on a crowded commuter line,
and I am sure we have all done that, but may also be for cost
or other convenience or standards of service factors, like the
need to reduce interchanging. We do not believe there is any information
within the Crossrail documentation which discusses the potential
for rail heading at Maidenhead and we believe their modelling
relies purely on a comparison of journey times and the train service
factors.
12481. Slide 21—you asked about this particular
characteristic in your survey.[52]
(Mr Reed) We did. What we asked
people to indicate was could they use a rail station closer to
their starting point and the rail stations we asked them about
were Bourne End or Furze Platt or Cookham, et cetera. What we
found was that around 20 per cent of the rail station boarders
could have used a rail station closer to their point of origin
but instead they chose to go to Maidenhead. Of that sample around
a quarter were rail headers into London.
12482. Slide 22.[53]
You say 73 per cent of rail headers are going to London and then
we have the reasons from the questionnaire as to what they were
doing. Take us through that.
(Mr Reed) What we found was that
of those people who were rail heading, especially into London,
the majority were using their car to do that. We do accept that
as you start to break the pieces down the sample gets smaller
and smaller but what we were trying to indicate was that these
things are occurring. What we found was that the reasons people
were giving for rail heading were the access to more rail services
at 64 per cent, to avoid changing trains, and also the availability
of parking at the rail station.
12483. Going to slide 23, you see some of these
other rail stations they could have used but they chose to come
to Maidenhead, and they are listed on the left hand side with
the percentage coming to Maidenhead, so rail heading.[54]
(Mr Reed) That is right. Obviously,
it was no good asking people if they were rail heading from Reading
and things like that. We asked them, "Which stations could
you have used?", and we have indicated there Twyford, Marlow,
Bourne End, Cookham and Furze Platt, and Marlow, Bourne End, Cookham
and Furze Platt are on the branch line. You can see that a reasonable
percentage of people are choosing to use Maidenhead instead of
their own service. Bourne End is at ten per cent. Because, again,
it is at the head of the line they are probably coming from Bourne
End into Maidenhead simply because it is another head of the line
and you know that there are two fast trains from Bourne End and
you can go there specifically for those trains to go straight
into London.
12484. Slide 24—just pick out if you can
the Bourne End-Marlow branch line figures in there.[55]
(Mr Reed) There are currently
two through services from Bourne End to Marlow in the morning.
In 2001 the survey was undertaken under LATS which is mentioned
in there, and that registered 172 boarding passengers at Cookham
and 155 boarding passengers at Furze Platt. Unfortunately, we
do not have figures for Bourne End and Marlow because they are
in Buckinghamshire County council area and we had only asked for
the Maidenhead area figures. Our concern and the borough's concern
is that with no through services proposed from those branches,
only connecting services into Maidenhead, people will say, "No,
that is not acceptable. We are going to jump in our cars and drive
to Maidenhead", and we believe that if you add into that
figures for Marlow and Bourne End, even if you took 50 per cent
of those figures that is another 150 cars coming into Maidenhead
to gain access to the rail network at a convenient point.
12485. Slide 25 is about some of the journey
time consequences and how that might underpin rail heading.[56]
(Mr Reed) We do not have access
to the same level of modelling information that the Promoter has,
but just to give you a comparable route, there is a line from
Reading to Waterloo that goes through Wokingham, Bracknell and
Martins Heron, et cetera. The journey times from those stations,
from Wokingham --- perhaps I could ask counsel to bring up map
number RBWM/MP1, tab G; it is in the supporting evidence.
12486. Sir Peter Soulsby: Tab G, document
A136.[57]
(Mr Reed) That is the Great Western
there, and this is the Reading to Waterloo line. That is Wokingham
station, that is Bracknell station and that is Martins Heron,
and journey times from these stations on this line for the fastest
train are 68 minutes, 62 minutes, and 59 minutes from Martins
Heron. If you live in those areas there, which people do, with
Maidenhead here, you are being offered 42 minutes into Paddington
and then direct connections to the City. On this line you have
to go to Waterloo and change and get the underground to get into
the City and that obviously adds to your journey time. On here
the direct service into the City is around 55 minutes. On this
line you are starting to get up into the 90 minutes' journey times.
We believe that that is an additional fact, that people in these
areas will start drifting across to Maidenhead because they are
getting the benefit of extra time with less interchanging. People
do not perceive the time they take in the car. If they have to
drive from these areas to get to these areas it is the same. Also,
with Maidenhead the station is on the southern side of Maidenhead
and therefore it lends itself to being able to be accessed from
this side.
12487. Thank you for that. You indicate at the
end of 25 that that will lead to rail heading and also, of course,
we have got the cars coming in that have to be parked, so you
then turn to the car parking demand on slide 26.[58]
You first set out what one has actually got there at the moment.
One has got the forecourt with some 80 spaces and Shoppenhangers
with some 172, so 252 total spaces there for the rail user. Silco
Drive is 407 metres' walking distance away.
(Mr Reed) Yes, from the pedestrian
access point to the entrance to the station.
12488. And then Stafferton Way—is that
meant to be a rail parking facility?
(Mr Reed) No. It is a long-stay car park that
serves Maidenhead town centre.
12489. So that is really the town centre provision
of a car park. That is what is there at the moment. Just to give
us a feel, Silco Drive is 407 metres away. At present do you see
that as a convenient distance to walk when one is accessing a
railway station?
(Mr Reed) No, we do not believe so. The surveys
that were undertaken show that Silco Drive is never used all the
time full; it is probably 75 per cent full. In the TIA undertaken
by Crossrail, Silco Drive is not even mentioned. They only mention
the forecourt and Shoppenhangers Road.
12490. Sir Peter Soulsby: These are distances
from the entrance?
(Mr Reed) These are from the pedestrian entrance/exit.
There are some photographs.
12491. Some of the car parks are quite long.
(Mr Reed) Yes, that is right. These are from
effectively where you come out of the pedestrian gate to the actual
entrance. I have not included the distances to walk from the car
park.
12492. Mr Stoker: It may be convenient
if one could look at the supporting documents.
(Mr Reed) You can do. In the supporting documents
at A136 there is MP2.[59]
12493. Could you just point out to the Committee
the journey one would take?
(Mr Reed) This is Maidenhead station, as you
know, and that is the forecourt as it is at the moment. That is
Shoppenhangers Road and that yellow square there is Silco Drive
as it is at the moment. This multi-storey here is Stafferton Way.
The blue area is the goods yard and, to be fair, we coloured that
whole because it is easier to do that than it is to try and indicate
--- part of that site is where the additional car parking has
been offered. The pedestrian exit is about there on Silco Drive
and you have to go down under the railway to Grenfell Road, along
Grenfell Road, and there is a little alleyway between a new commercial
building and one that is being built at the moment. There is a
narrow alleyway there, I think it is called Grenfell Walk, and
a narrow alleyway there, and that brings you up by the side of
the cycle sheds and then you can turn and go into the forecourt.
That distance is 407 metres from door to door. The entrance into
the car park here, the goods yard, on that same route, is 450
metres and we estimate that the car park that is being provided
is somewhere in the region of 100-130 metres long, so the total
distance you travel is something in the region of 450 metres if
you are lucky and park there first thing, and getting on for 600
metres if you have to park right at the back, which is over half
a kilometre. With regard to the distance from Shoppenhanger, you
come out on to the main road, down to the forecourt which is just
under 200 metres, and Stafferton Way, across the road into the
station forecourt, is 300 metres.
12494. Could you just give a flavour from a
few photographs in appendix A?
(Mr Reed) Yes, document A136, appendix A.
12495. Start with photos 1 and 2.[60]
Just take us very quickly through those.
(Mr Reed) Photograph 1 is a view
from the goods entrance, so the blue area. I was stood on the
entrance into the goods yard looking down and that shows you the
car park at Silco Drive you can just see on the right, and the
rail over-bridge is single-way working, so that is why there is
a traffic signal there, so that you have to go through the traffic
signals to get into Silco Drive. The second photograph shows the
pedestrian access from the current Silco Drive car park and that
is the measurement point effectively, so where that barrier is
on the side you go down the walkway and along there. If we can
change to photograph 3, there is a footpath on the right hand
side that goes underneath the bridge and along the road, and on
photograph 4 that is a view backwards which shows the steepness
of the ramp coming out of the pedestrian route from Silco Drive.[61]
12496. Sir Peter Soulsby: I think we
are going to have to take your word for it.
(Mr Reed) Yes. I think we can skip the next
few photographs. If we could go to photograph 7, you have to travel
along the road basically.[62]
You get to a point which I believe is called Grenfell Walk and
what you have got is a narrow footway. On the left hand side is
a commercial building and on the right hand side there is a commercial
building being built, so from what I can see from where the columns
are on the building that footway is not going to be significantly
improved. It is quite narrow and obviously at the moment there
is lots of sky but once that is built that alleyway will become
quite overbearing. It is quite dark. Then on the next plate, photograph
8, at this point here, effectively out of shot, the footway does
a 90-degree bend and then continues along the side of this commercial
building and at this point, just up here, there are the cycle
sheds and you turn and go into the forecourt. One of the issues,
if you go to photograph 9, which is part way along this road here,
which is on the next page, is that there is a recessed emergency
exit from the building which is part way along that walking route,
so early morning and late at night there is no CCTV camera footage
on there at the moment.[63]
Clearly, under future proposals that might be added but at the
moment that is the route you have to take.
12497. Back to slide 27.[64]
Tell us about what your views are about the filling up of these
car parks.
(Mr Reed) What was reported in
the transport assessment was that the forecourt itself was full
before eight o'clock in the morning and that Shoppenhangers Road
car park was full by about ten o'clock, and that was in March
2004. What we found was that the car parks had filled up much
earlier two years later. The station forecourt is full by seven
o'clock in the morning and Shoppenhangers is full by eight o'clock
in the morning. As I say, in the transport assessment Silco Drive
was not mentioned by Crossrail's consultants but during the day
it is probably only 75 per cent full. The point we are trying
to get across here is that in order to get a car parking spot
people are travelling earlier to the station. If they want to
park at the railway station they are travelling much earlier;
we are seeing that trend.
12498. Also, Silco Drive is only 75 per cent
full. Where are people parking? If we go to slide 28, this gives
us an indication of where people are parking on a percentage basis,
looking at all the rail users parking in the peak period of seven
till ten.[65]
Just take us through this.
(Mr Reed) What we asked people
was, "If you drive where do you park?", and we gave
them a number of options, as you can see on the left hand side.
One of the things that we wanted to do was try to establish how
many people were not using the rail car parks to park but were
still accessing the rail network. You can see that there are two
columns of numbers. One is for effectively all rail users whether
you are going east or west, and those in the second column are
those percentages of rail users who travel into London. What you
can see, effectively borne out by the previous slide about people
travelling earlier, is that the popular car parks, the forecourt
and Shoppenhangers, have a higher percentage of London-bound people
going to those because they travel early and therefore take up
the capacity there. The remainder of people have to find other
places to park, so they park at Stafferton Way, they park on the
street, and there are a number of other locations as well, whether
church car parks or other locations. People are ingenious about
where they can find to park the car.
12499. Homing in on those on-street and other
locations, with 17 per cent going to Paddington and 31 per cent
being rail users, do you think that is a satisfactory situation,
to have that amount of people parking on the street and at other
locations?
(Mr Reed) No, it is not. We all accept that
rail use has grown, but other parts of the infrastructure on the
rail network have not kept pace. The car parking provision is
one of those. The demand to use rail services is over-spilling
into other areas. We are finding that the demand for rail service
and car parking is already impacting on residents. It is impacting
on the long-term parking that has been provided for access into
Maidenhead itself and use in Maidenhead.
51 Committee Ref: A137, Rail Heading (WINSRB-14605C-020). Back
52
Committee Ref: A137, Rail Heading (WINSRB-14605C-021). Back
53
Committee Ref: A137, Rail Heading (WINSRB-14605C-022). Back
54
Committee Ref: A137, Rail Heading (WINSRB-14605C-023). Back
55
Committee Ref: A137, Rail Heading (WINSRB-14605C-024). Back
56
Committee Ref: A137, Rail Heading (WINSRB-14605C-025). Back
57
Committee Ref: A136, Overview of Rail Service and Rail Station
Locations (SCN-20060627-003). Back
58
Committee Ref: A137, Car Parking Demand (WINSRB-14605C-026). Back
59
Committee Ref: A136, Location of Maidenhead Station and Royal
Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Long Stay Parking (SCN-20060627-004). Back
60
Committee Ref: A136, Silco Drive Car Park (SCN-20060627-005 and
-006). Back
61
Committee Ref: A136, Railway bridge and Silco Drive Car Park
access (SCN-20060627-007). Back
62
Committee Ref: A136, Grenfell Walk (SCN-20060627-008 and -009). Back
63
Committee Ref: A136, Fire Exit and Cycle Parking on Grenfell
Walk (WINSRB-14605A-008). Back
64
Committee Ref: A137, Car Parking Demand (WINSRB-14605C-027). Back
65
Committee Ref: A137, Car Parking Demand (WINSRB-14605C-028). Back
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