|
TRANSPORT IN THE SOUTH WEST Written submission from TravelWatch SouthWest CIC to the House of Commons' South West Regional Committee, July 2009. Summary The submission highlights the poor record in the provision of sustainable transport in the South West, observes that this may be compounded by the recent changes to regional governance and identifies current opportunities to mitigate the principal short-comings.
Introduction 1. TravelWatch SouthWest welcomes the Committee's inquiry. There is widespread recognition that successive Governments have not succeeded in addressing the South West's transport challenges and concern that its local authorities lack the skills and resources to develop and deliver sustainable transport solutions. As a consequence, the South West suffers from excessive dependence on private transport. This worsens congestion, particularly in major conurbations, constrains economic development, increases emissions of carbon and damaging particulates, damages peoples' health, threatens the quality of the natural environment and exacerbates social exclusion, particularly for those who depend on public transport for access to employment, education and services.
2. Through its representation in the former Regional Assembly TravelWatch SouthWest[1] promoted a more sustainable approach to regional transport planning. It contributed effectively to the draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), the South West's advice on the Regional Funding Allocation (RFA2) and the development of concerted regional initiatives, such as the South West Rail Prospectus2. Without effective channels for stakeholder representation in the region, the South West may lapse into trying to revive heritage local authority road schemes, jeopardizing the opportunity to develop the regional transport network that is essential to sustainable economic growth3.
Whether transport provision in the
south west is adequate to meet the demands placed upon the region a) It has the slowest-moving urban traffic4; b) It has the highest rail fares5; c) The average age of the passenger rail fleet is greater than that in any other region and much of the rail infrastructure is life expired6; d) People have worse access to buses than in any other part of Great Britain7. e) Unsurprisingly, greater use of cars is made in the region than elsewhere8.
4. Part
of the failure in transport provision for the South West can be ascribed to the
region's inability - until recently - to agree priorities that would deliver
more sustainable transport. But another factor is that policies that make sense
for 5. The
dispersed settlement pattern of the South West and the economic disparities
between its sub-regions9 contrast with the relatively proximity of
large settlements to one another that characterise most of the rest of
6. The
South West's demographic profile accentuates the challenges: not only does the
region have the highest proportion of people living in rural areas but its
population is the fastest growing in the 7. A further consideration is the 'specialness' of the region's environment, both in relation to the proportion of the landscape that requires protection but also its significance for the economy of the South West. Transport links that give people the freedom to enjoy this distinctiveness may, unless well managed, bring about its destruction and undermine the well-being of those it sustains.
What the priorities should be for improvement: 8. The South West should attune the five key goals of Delivering a Sustainable Transport System12, to pursue priorities which address the region's particular needs. We see the following as essential: a) Planning for the long term to assure the
reliability and resilience of the strategic corridors that provide links with
adjoining regions and
b) Ensuring a step-change in public transport provision through effective local and national government intervention and by levering public and private investment to ensure that passengers find it more attractive and affordable- particularly in the region's conurbations - so reducing car dependency and encourage modal shift.
c) Requiring planning authorities to produce a transport impact assessment for each major planning scheme thereby ensuring that spatial planning and transport provision are integrated13.
d) Making better use of existing transport corridors to deliver innovative approaches to coping with the demand for additional housing and employment14.
e) Reflecting the demand for, and meeting the costs of, sustainable mobility - particularly in rural areas and on the fringes of conurbations - so that communities remain vibrant with access to education, jobs and services. The need for this is emphasised by the need of an aging population for access to health, welfare and cultural services. f)
Acknowledging the need to ensure that unless journey times by rail are
competitive with other modes and comparable to those elsewhere in the How these priorities should be
reflected in the upcoming Regional Transport Strategy: What the costs of these improvements
would be and whether the region can afford them; Whether the current arrangements for prioritising, approving and funding infrastructure projects are effective and appropriate; 11. The South West needs to refine its arrangements for prioritising infrastructure projects although experience with RFA2 showed that progress since RFA1 which, as noted in the independent report commissioned by the DfT to review the processes and methodology employed by each region, the was marred when "a united challenge to the emerging methodology had been mounted by the counties' Environment Directors in an attempt to preserve their programme of schemes"17.
12. Similar behaviour was evident during RFA2. Some Environment Directors, or their representatives, are understood to have used the in camera meetings of the Regional Environment Directors' Group, to press their heritage local schemes or argue that it would be unwise tactically to promote rail-related projects. The recommendations supporting a regional contribution to work on redoubling of the Swindon-Kemble railway line and for the development of the Bristol Metro were challenged whilst the eventual inclusion of a proposal from Wiltshire to dual the A350, despite Highways' Agency concerns about its impact on the M4, was ascribed to the desire to ensure that Wiltshire's cooperation in the new regional Strategic Leaders' Board replacing the Regional Assembly. The lack of transparency - something accentuated by the changes in regional governance and the exclusion of expert regional stakeholders from such exercises - makes it likely that 'Buggins' turn' will continue to come around: projects that are essentially local could command a disproportionate share of regional funds, even when non-compliant with national policies or regional strategies.
13. These
weaknesses are accentuated by the lack of transport planning, design and
management capacity, particularly in the stretched unitary authorities and
especially in relation to public transport schemes. The stronger shire
counties, such as
14. Even
traditional road schemes provide no assurance of effective management. The
Highways Agency completed Dobwalls by-pass for £52 million; having entered RFA1
as a commitment of £31.7 million17 (and estimated previously as
costing £11.8 million18).
15. The South West has some way to go before it can be assured that mechanisms exist to deliver schemes reflecting national policies and regional strategies to time and within budget. It will become more difficult with increased dependence on hard pressed local authority officers under the new regional governance arrangements. It will be harder to win public support for decisions which are frequently controversial are often lacking in transparency without the full engagement of stakeholders.
Whether the region is doing enough to promote environmentally friendly transport; 16. There
is increasing awareness of the need to promote environmentally friendly public
transport. But more needs to be done and the next few months will provide a
test of whether the new regional arrangements can rise to the challenge. The
Secretary of State has made it clear that rail electrification is clearly on
the agenda: but despite positive BCRs and favorable investment cases the South
West will still need to press its case. It will also need to address the
challenge to rural transport provision arising from the changes proposed for
the Bus Service Operators Grant. It also needs to show that it is understands
the implications of reducing transport emissions: despite encouragement the
RFA2 advice ducked the issue19. Above all, the regional institutions
will need to promote the case for a step-change in the quality of public
transport and to make the case to local authorities for what a more innovative
approach could achieve. 17. Transport is currently the fastest growing sector for carbon emissions - the options for zero-carbon transport need to be explored if the Government's very challenging targets for reductions in carbon emissions are to be achieved. The role and effectiveness of regional bodies, such as the Regional Development Agency and South West Councils, in identifying and addressing transport issues; 18. The RDA is now playing a more effective role in promoting
sustainable transport solutions20. However, its team is small and
its investment commitment is poor compared to other regions such as the
19. Regional effectiveness could be further compromised if the region is unable to resolve the potential confusion arising from that arises from continuance of the Regional Transport Board, the opacity of the Regional Environmental Directors' Group, both which partly overlap the RDA's more effective and inclusive Board Infrastructure Advisory Group. It signals the region's inability to speak with one voice. The role and effectiveness of the Government Office for the South West in delivering national transport policy within the region; 20. The South West's weakness is compounded by the way in which Government Office South West persists in reducing its small transport team. This weakens its ability promote the region's case nationally whilst hampering its mentoring and monitoring of local authorities in policy delivery. The ability of the Government to influence private sector transport providers. 21. The Government's does influence private sector transport
providers. The Government closely specifies rail services in the South West,
right down to the times of trains, the number and type of vehicle and fare-levels.
Passengers are the weaker party in the franchise contract. Unless franchisees renege
on their commitments, rail users in the South West are likely to bear more than
the full operating cost of providing rail services within the lifetime of those
contracts22. This contrasts with the majority of rail services
elsewhere in the
22. Parliament has recently granted national and local government new powers in relation to the bus industry.23 Local authorities may be reluctant to use these powers for fear of offending entrenched lobbies - local shop-keepers who resist bus priority measures, for example, or even those in local authorities who are disinclined to work with their neighbours. This needs turning around: GOSW should find ways of encouraging local authorities to raise their game and reward those who demonstrate an ability to work in partnership with operators. Too often - particularly in the South West - those who have political responsibility for public transport are divorced from its daily reality while transport officers are accorded lowly status.
23. Bus users need strong champions in local government if the new legislation is to be used to meet their needs. But passenger advocacy and the protection of passengers' rights is important in all public transport modes. We welcome the proposed extension of Passenger Focus's remit for this reason and look forward to extending our current collaboration with them, particularly in light of their pilot work on bus users in the South West.
24. The European Commission has identified the need for
legislation that protects the rights of passengers as the weaker party to the
transport contract. The EU has legislated to protect the rights of airline
passengers24 and rail passengers25 and there is draft
legislation covering similar rights for bus and coach26 and for maritime
passengers27. There is, however, an anomaly relating to the protection
of rights of passengers using scheduled helicopter services, such as those
between
25. At a time when motorists are making increasing use of Sat Nav information services it would be sensible to facilitate region-wide passenger-friendly technologies for public transport - real time information services at every bus stop which is also available on-line and on people's phones and PDAs, for example. GOSW and the RDA have already initiated work on smart-card applications: a cross-modal, universally recognised smart card would be tangible evidence of a commitment to making public transport easier to use.
26. Government should also be doing more to encourage both local authorities and the strategic health authorities to pool effort and resources in meeting their various obligations for transport provision. Rural parts of the region already suffer from the lack of public transport provision: resources are too scarce for them to be dissipated between the needs of separate departments when coordinated action might produce disproportionate benefits.
27. The ability of Government to influence private sector providers is affected by perceptions of current issues. The English concessionary fares scheme is of enormous social value to its beneficiaries and reflects the priorities of the Government's social inclusion agenda. However, operators perceive it as failing to provide them with equitable remuneration. The lack of transparency in the way that it is administered locally (although funded centrally) mean that many local authority members believe that their authority is out of pocket while detached observers in the South West have observed that while some, like Exeter, Torbay, Tewkesbury, Bath & North East Somerset and North Somerset are certainly providing the concession at a deficit others - particularly the rural districts - are 'quids in' because of the inadequacy of the local networks, despite the social inclusion agenda. Some areas need a change of bus and an extended journey time to reach a nearby larger town or City. Where a rail link offers this journey directly and more than halves the journey time, TWSW believe that such local rail links should be included as discretionary concessions. There would be no need for further government funding: the underspend reflects the paucity of bus networks in such areas, leading to low use and low expenditure. The net effect, however, is to breed a distrust between operator and authority and a policy climate that may threaten the long-term viability of this socially valuable scheme28. [1] TravelWatch SouthWest is a social enterprise which was established to act as an advocate for passengers and potential passengers in seeking improvement to public transport in the South West. It grew out of the South West Public Transport Users' Forum which was established as a sub-committee of the statutory Rail Passengers' Committee for Western England in 2001 to promote the interests of public transport users in the South West of England government region (comprising the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire and the unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, Bournemouth, Bristol, North Somerset, Plymouth, Poole, South Gloucestershire, Swindon and Torbay). Following enactment of the Railways Act 2005, which abolished the regional committees of the Rail Passengers' Council, the Forum became a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee.
Membership of TWSW is open to every not-for-profit organisation in the South West England government region whose sole or principal purpose is to represent users or potential users of any public transport service or to promote the development of public transport services. Membership is also open to other not-for-profit organisations in the region that represent the interests of special and potential classes of public transport users e.g. the disabled or the elderly. Around one hundred organisations participate in its work on a regular basis and participate in its twice-yearly General Meetings. TWSW works closely with South West Councils, South West Stakeholders (as it did with their predecessor, the South West Regional Assembly in which TWSW represented public transport users), with the Regional Development Agency (who we advise on public transport issues) and with transport operators. It undertakes consultancy and public information activities and also receives funding from the institutions of regional governance, local authorities and a number of public transport operators.
3
Delivering the
4 Average speeds in Bristol are slower than in any other UK city: according to a city-speed league table compiled jointly last year by the AA and Trafficmaster average traffic speed was 16.8mph, compared with London's 16.9mph; www.which.co.uk/news/2008/04/aa-uses-motorbikes-to-beat-traffic-135856.jsp
5 Some of the turn-up-and-go rail fares in the
region are higher than those for comparable routes elsewhere in the 1. The standard class fare between Swindon and London works out at 44 pence per kilometer, compared to 2. Rugby to London at 39ppk, 3. Peterborough
to 4. Market
Harborough to
6 The Great Western Main Line infrastructure was so life-expired that the Ten Year Transport Plan of June 2000 listed its up-grade, along with completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, the route modernisation of the West Coast Main Line and the up-grade of the East Coast Main Line, as number four out of eleven national projects that were to be delivered by 2010 - see Paragraph 6.21, Transport Ten Year Plan 2000 , DETR, July 2000; www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/165259/tenyearplan
7 Table 1.14 of the Regional Transport Statistics, 2008 Edition, DfT 8 Tables 1.1 and 1.2, ibid 9 The GVA of
10 See, in particular, Chapter 2.2 and Figure 2.1 of the Eddington Transport Study of December 2006. 11 State of the South West 2009, South West Regional Observatory. The most recent projections (2006) indicate that the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will reach 20% next year, rising to around 28% by 2031.
12 Delivering a Sustainable Transport System, DfT, 2009
13 The Mayor for London successfully introduced a good practice guide, Transport for London's Transport Assessment Good Practice, in Autumn 2004 with the purpose of ensuring that for every potentially significant development, there is a process to ensure that it can be accommodated as sustainably as possible by the public transport network and that the development itself is designed to reduce congestion and encourage use of alternatives to the private car, including enhancing opportunities for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users to travel easily and safely.
14 For example, significant development should
be planned, where appropriate, around existing transport corridors where there
is potential for greater utilisation or using rights of way deriving from
earlier corridors such as closed railway lines. The
15 The problem is felt particularly acutely by those living in the South
West peninsular. The lack of investment in the main line west of Exeter (by
which we mean investment leading to improvements in infrastructure reliability
and faster journey times rather than routine repair and maintenance) means that
there is a widely held view that rail cannot deliver fast frequent links to
London and elsewhere. It is for this reason that local authorities sometimes
argue that road and air investment is the only option open to them. It is
illuminating that it takes 30-40 minutes more, by the fastest train, to travel
from
16 See TravelWatch SouthWest's response to a consultation by Network Rail on its Draft RUS: Electrification Strategy, July 2009
17 Regions' Advice of Transport Regional Funding Allocations - First Round, DfT 2006.
18 Roads Review - what role for trunk roads in
19 Stakeholder members of the Regional Transport Board, when challenging the absence of adequate advice on the carbon impact of what was being proposed were told that it was too difficult to tackle this in the time available, despite the requirements of the Government's guidance. It has even been suggested by the Campaign for Better Transport that in the South West those promoters of schemes who had managed to supply carbon emissions' data were penalised in comparison to those promoters who had failed to submit data - see www.bettertransport.org.uk/system/files/09.03.26.regional-funding-briefing.pdf.
20 This is reflected by its decision in 2008 no longer to support investment of its funds in the development of air services, the role it played with other regional partners, including TravelWatch SouthWest, in developing the South West Rail Prospectus and in contributing towards the region's Climate Change Action Plan. This is a significant advance: the days when the Agency cited as evidence of its commitment to sustainable tourism its contribution to procuring a peak summer holiday bus service to Monkey World are thankfully past.
21 The RDA's draft Refreshed Corporate Plan 2009-2011, which it produced in the wake of the economic recession and the need to accommodate significant cuts to its budget, asserts that the Agency 'will not be able to invest in public realm works except in rare cases'. This plays down the link between investment in public goods and the correction of market failure - ignoring the role that public infrastructure can play in underpinning innovation and enterprise.
22 The Greater Western franchise will return
£1.468 billion to the Government in 2006-7 prices over its ten year life while
the South Western franchise is committed to pay £1.246 billion. Over the eight
years of the New CrossCountry franchise - whose services extend to
23 The Local Transport Act 2009 provides a framework and tools that should allow local authorities and bus operators to work together to boost bus use, improve performance, address climate change and develop a stronger focus on passengers' needs.
24 Regulations 889/2002; 785/2004; 261/2004; 1107/2006/1008/2008
25 Regulation 1371/2007
26 Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council concerning the rights of passengers travelling by sea and inland waterway, European Commission, 2008
27 Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council concerning the rights of passengers in bus and coach transport, European Commission, 2008
28 See TravelWatch SouthWest's response to a consultation by DfT on Possible Changes to the Administration of Concessionary Travel, July 2009
25 July 2009 |