Transport and the Economy

Memorandum from West Midlands Campaign for Better Transport (TE 113)

1. The Campaign for Better Transport campaigns for a sustainable transport system which is a real alternative to the private car, with high quality bus, rail and metro services and where it is easy and safe to walk and cycle. As well as the national organisation based in London there are also a network of local groups around the country, including one for the West Midlands, covering Birmingham, the Black Country, Solihull and Coventry.

2. As the committee is coming to Birmingham on the 16th November we thought that it would be useful to produce a short memorandum giving some background to the current situation in the West Midlands.

3. As you will be aware the West Midlands conurbation is at the heart of the nations transport network, with both the strategic motorway network and the main InterCity rail network running through its heart. It is fair to say that an incident within the West Midlands can have implications across the country, for example a serious accident on the M6 through Birmingham can cause delays and congestion on the motorway network up towards Manchester, which brings all the problems for businesses and people of lost time and money (which has an economic impact).

4. The conurbation is also home to two million people – they all have to travel around to get to employment, educational opportunities and other services. The hub of the conurbation is Birmingham. The need for people to commute in to and out of Birmingham from the wider region often conflicts with those making longer journeys on the strategic road network which leads to delays and lost productivity for both sets of travellers. This has been recognised by the Highways Agency, and they are to be commended for the work they have done in installing "Active Traffic Management", initially on the M42. This has improved traffic flow and has provided additional capacity for minimal cost. Plans have been formulated for the system to be installed on the M6 through Birmingham to relieve the congestion here largely caused by commuters.

5. However, there is still a lack of sufficient rail capacity in the region for local services. While some routes have an excellent service (the Cross City line from Lichfield to Redditch being one such example with a train every 10 minutes) local services on other routes are not so frequent – for example there are three local services on the Birmingham – Coventry route every hour, two of which run within minutes of one another, all of which have different calling patterns.

6. Rail services within the West Midlands conurbation have blossomed thanks to the support of Centro, who have provided investment for new lines, stations and integration between different modes of transport. Up until 2007 they were co-signatory to the West Midlands rail franchise, however following the Railways Act 2005 Centro is no longer allowed to be a co-signatory. This of concern; Centro have an excellent knowledge of the local area and links to stakeholders such as local authorities, the business community (such as the Chambers of Commerce) and groups such as ourselves. The links they have with local stakeholders are probably better than those that there are with DfT in London.

7. Services from the wider region to Birmingham are less frequent, despite the economic links. For example Bromsgrove has a strong commuter flow into Birmingham and trains to and from the town are regularly full. Despite this, and the latent demand for this route travelling by road into Birmingham, Bromsgrove has an hourly service into Birmingham supplemented with a couple of extra trains during the peak periods. A scheme has been developed by Centro, working with Network Rail and other local authorities to extend two electric Cross City trains an hour which currently terminate at Longbridge, to Bromsgrove to an improved station. The scheme would require a relatively modest capital outlay as rail projects go and would have economic benefits in terms of improved connectivity between Bromsgrove and its catchment, and Birmingham and the wider region. It would be a relatively quick win. Despite the work done and the strong local support progress has been glacial.

8. Mention should also be made that crowding standards on local rail routes in the West Midlands area (the PIXC standard) has been changed from that devised by Centro to the London standard of crowding. Rail patronage has grown in the region year on year since the early 1990’s. When the trains are full where will all the extra passengers go? How will this affect the economic performance of the region? As in London and in the North of England there will be a need for extra rolling stock in the medium term for the West Midlands, both for trains to be extended and for additional services to be provided. (This is an issue that is being considered by Network Rail in some detail as they are currently preparing a Rail Utilisation Strategy for the West Midlands and Chilterns.)

9. Within Birmingham over 30% of households do not have access to a car – relying on walking or public transport for their journeys. For many people this means using the bus. Services within the West Midlands conurbation (as in most parts of the UK outside of London) operate under a deregulated framework, with Centro subsidising those routes that are socially necessary.

10. The majority of the commercial network (95%) is operated by National Express West Midlands. Over the last two years there has been a programme of network reviews undertaken in conjunction with Centro, looking at the bus network within a given area and seeing how it can be improved. Whilst the reviews have led to some improvements, a number of routes have also been withdrawn. This has made some journeys more difficult and has meant that some people have had to make two or three changes of service. The reviews in our opinion have not worked, and this is best demonstrated by major changes to services being implemented only a matter of months following the review.

11. It is clear that the level of service offered by bus operators has been affected by economic factors. The recession and rising unemployment has led to a reduction in trips made by bus particularly those trips being made to and from work. (Birmingham has a number of wards in the national top ten for the highest numbers of claimants for Job Seekers Allowance per ward). Fares have also gone up above inflation – the most recent fares rise saw the cost of tickets rise by up to a quarter. [1] This is a disincentive to use public transport although passengers can save money by purchasing a multi-journey ticket like a "Travelcard" or day ticket.

12. There is also a perception amongst many people that the bus service provided is not of high quality. A Freedom of Information Request made by our group to Centro in 2009 revealed that the West Midlands was not on track to meet its targets to improve the reliability of bus services. Punctuality (the number of buses arriving between 1 minute early and 5 minutes late) only improved by 1% between 2002/03 and 2007/08 [2] and this was only due to operators lengthening journey times rather than the provision of bus priorities or improvements in operating standards. Anti-social behaviour, cleanliness and customer service has also been raised by passengers as issues of concern.

13. We have also had the spectacle of Birmingham City Council spending money installing bus lanes on the A38 Tyburn Road in the north of Birmingham to speed up bus journey times for people travelling on the 67 route between Castle Vale and the city centre, only for them to be taken out again only a few years later, ostensibly to speed up journey times for motorists. The whole exercise has cost city tax-payers £2.6 million [3] and this is money now lost – while passengers in Castle Vale have only seen modest improvements to their local bus service rather than the sea change promised when the Tyburn Road scheme was being planned.

14. It should be noted that many of the places in the UK where the economy has boomed and new industries and business have located (Cambridge, Oxford, Nottingham and Reading amongst them) have invested in high quality bus services and have seen double digit growth in patronage – indeed these places are seen as the "gold standard" to which the bus industry should be aiming for.

15. We do have concerns that there is a concentration within the West Midlands on grands projets rather than providing the infrastructure needed for the local economy to flourish. There are calls for Birmingham to be connected into High Speed 2. The economic case though is not proven and there are still questions to be answered. Will it mean more jobs and investment coming into Birmingham and the West Midlands, or will it suck investment away and drain the local economy? We have already seen the emergence of people commuting from Warwickshire to London and HS2 could encourage more long distance commuting.

16. There is also the issue of the expansion of Birmingham Airport. Again the economic case for the expansion of the airport is questionable, although the airport does contribute to the regional economy. In order to facilitate this Birmingham and Solihull councils are reportedly paying £32 million between them to allow the A45 to be diverted. This is an odd situation, since most schemes like this would require the developer to pay for any transport works under a S.106 agreement.

17. There is a need for investment to be concentrated on local and regional transport networks in order to boost local economies and productivity. This is what was argued by Sir Rod Eddington in his report on transport and the economy published in 2006, rather than large scale infrastructure schemes such as new motorways or high speed lines.

18. There is a need to look at improvements to the existing network, in order to make journey times more reliable, local areas more amenable and to make conditions safer for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. There is work being done in the West Midlands to address this need via the Smart Routes project and a number have been developed already including one on the A34 in Birmingham, using Red Routes to simply parking restrictions and improve traffic flow while also improving the urban environment and pavements. We would like to see this work continue over LTP3.

19. Coventry has also seen the development of a high quality bus network as the result of partnership working between the city council, Centro and bus companies. This had led to a much improved service and a growth in patronage, and Coventry has the type of bus service we would like to see rolled out across the West Midlands.

20. There is also the question of the links between transport and regeneration. The conurbation has suffered from previous development schemes placing the needs of the car over the needs of people. Air quality in many parts of the conurbation is amongst the worst in the UK and some authorities have looked at introducing "Air Quality Management Areas", whilst some previous regeneration schemes such as the Merry Hill shopping centre (easily accessible by car) have sucked trade away from existing town and district centres leading them to suffer a cycle of decline. There is a need to look at encouraging the renaissance of local centres by attracting new businesses to come in and new trade. Providing high quality, reliable public transport will be vital.

21. In conclusion, the transport network of the West Midlands does make a contribution to the national economy but must also service the local economies within the conurbation and allow them to develop and flourish. Providing a high quality public transport network as seen in other cities could the catalyst for new investment and regeneration. The upcoming LTP3 will need to provide a balancing act, ensuring that the West Midlands transport network meets both local and national needs.

November 2010