The Landor LINKS Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service is now in its third year. Whatever sector of transport you work in, MaaS is now having an impact either as a planner, providing public transport, bike share, car hire, leasing, payments, operational support, TRANStech. We'd like to hear from you, so please complete the survey to gauge how MaaS – and our hopes and fears for it – are developing. Take part in the survey today Last year we had more interest from the automotive se

The winners of the 2019 everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards have been revealed. Over the past 12 years the everywoman awards have championed women in the transport and logistics industries, showcasing and celebrating the sectors’ most exceptional role models. The winners were announced at Grosvenor House in London on 13 June. While many of the winners were drawn from the passenger transport, infrastructure and freight sectors, the world of walking was also recognised at this y

On 4 June Chris Rand from the Smarter Cambridge Transport lobbying group used an opinion column in the Cambridge Independent newspaper to promote the idea of a light rail system for the city. “People use buses because they have to,” he began. “They use rail because they want to. Compare the spread of people from all walks of life that you see on the London Underground or city tram networks anywhere to that on any bus service.  “And that’s why I'm still waiting

Transport for Wales has confirmed that new tram-trains for the Core Valley Lines will not have on-board toilets, despite First Minister Mark Drakeford telling the Senedd this week that toilets will be provided on Wales’ new rolling stock. Rhondda AM Leanne Wood asked when “frustrated” passengers could expect to see new rolling stock on the Cardiff-Treherbert line and whether a member of TfW staff had been correct to tell her that the new carriages would not feature toilets. D

Transport for London is to start capturing depersonalised wi-fi connection data from millions of London Underground passengers’ phones from early July.       TfL ran a four-week pilot of capturing wi-fi data in 2016 and has developed the system in-house. When a device such as a smart phone has wi-fi enabled, it continually searches for a wi-fi network by sending out a unique identifier – known as a Media Access Control address – to nearby routers.  TfL sa

A multi-billion pound investment in rail-based transportation for the Glasgow conurbation has been called for in the final report of the Glasgow Connectivity Commission. Glasgow City Council’s SNP leader Susan Aitken appointed the Commission in 2017 under the chairmanship of David Begg, a transport economist who was the City of Edinburgh Council’s Labour transport committee convenor in the 1990s. The Commission’s first report published in December made recommendations on the

The first of a fleet of rebuilt London Underground trains has entered service on the national rail network. A two-car VivaRail’s Class 230 ‘D Train’ began operating this week for London North Western Railways (part of West Midlands Trains) on the Bedford to Bletchley line. The former District Line stock has been refurbished and fitted with a diesel engine

Transport for London has  made a new pitch for the ‘metroisation’ of commuter services in south and south-east London, with turn up and go frequencies and higher capacity trains. TfL already manages much of the capital’s rail services through the London Overground concession held by Arriva, and the Crossrail concession held by MTR. But most rail services in south London remain part of rail franchises managed by the DfT.  TfL’s strategic case for metroisation s

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has published more detailed  plans for its Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM) public transport system. The strategic outline business case, prepared by consultant Steer, envisages an 88-mile network extending to towns such as Huntingdon, St Neots, Mildenhall and Haverhill. At its heart would be 7.5 miles of twin-bore?tunnels beneath Cambridge, which would remove buses from the city’s streets. Underground stations would serve t

Shadow sub-national transport body Transport for the South East (TfSE) still looks set to seek bus franchising powers from the Government, despite an indication from DfT civil servants that the power crosses a ‘red line’.  TfSE recently consulted member authorities about the proposed set of powers it should acquire when it gains statutory status (LTT 18 Jan).  The matter was also discussed at TfSE’s December meeting attended by Tricia Hayes, the DfT’s director

The estimated outturn cost of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Midland Metro extension has jumped by £47m to £449.5m, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has said. The 6.7-mile light rail line will run from the existing Wolverhampton-Birmingham line at Wednesbury to Brierley Hill in the south, via Dudley town centre and the Waterfront/Merry Hill retail/business area. Just over four miles of the route will be on a disused rail alignment and about two-and-a-half miles will be o

Councillors in Edinburgh are expected to give final approval later this month to extend the city’s tram line from the city centre to Newhaven in the north.   The 4.6km extension should have been built as part of the original tram line from Edinburgh Airport but the project’s massive cost overrun forced the council to truncate the line at York Place in the city centre. Councillors heard this week that the extension had an expected outturn cost of £207.3m. The actual cost

A proposed tram-train service between Glasgow Airport and Glasgow city centre has been dropped because it would cause unacceptable disruption to existing rail services.  The plan would have seen a new rail spur built between the airport and Paisley where the tram-train vehicles would join the existing Network Rail tracks to Glasgow Central. The project was earmarked £138m from the £1.13bn Glasgow city region deal struck between councils, the UK and Scottish governments in 2014.

The Slough to Windsor & Eton Central rail branch could be converted to become part of a mass rapid transit (MRT) system under plans being developed by Slough Borough Council.  The 2.8-mile single track branch is part of the Great Western Railway franchise, with trains operating to a 20-minute frequency.  But a new report for Slough Borough Council by consultant SNC Lavalin Atkins proposes that the branch should form part of a mass transit network for the borough.  The consu

The DFT has issued a call for evidence on opportunities to deliver new light rail and other rapid transit systems in towns and cities in England.  In the foreword to the report, transport minister Jesse Norman says such systems could not only play a vital part in meeting the needs of urban areas, but create a new manufacturing industry in the UK. “A key further element is the need to look at how we can build industrial capacity for a new generation of light rail and related systems i

Plans for a ‘super hub’ are being drawn up on the site of the Old Oak Common railway depot in north-west London. The high-speed rail station, due to open in 2026, would offer services to the Midlands, Scotland and the North and access to central London and Heathrow via Crossrail. The long-term planning and development of the wider site is being led by the Mayor of London’s Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, which is planning a mixed-use development, with commercia

Between 31 May 2018 and 31 July 2018, the Department for Transport held a 'Call for ideas' in respect of rail market-led proposals (MLPs); essentially a call for proposals that were 'financially credible without government support'. There was a strong response to this call for ideas, with the department receiving 30 submissions, although DfT has not yet commented on the relative merits of these. An MLP is defined as 'a project promoted by the private sector which addresses an opportunity not ne

A few years ago, Future Systems Catapult and Grimshaw Architects ran a competition to ask ‘What new civic function might a rail transportation hub play in the next 10-25 years?’ Participants were asked how station operators could dynamically re-direct travellers around disruption, how neighbouring businesses could be increasingly integrated with station environments, and what the service function around urban, suburban and community rail stations would be. Such is the time lag betwe

Transport for London (TfL) generated more than £150m in advertising revenue in 2017/18, which was invested in transport network improvements. TfL’s second Annual Advertising Report (2017/18) highlights the shift to more digital screens on escalators and platforms. In 2017/2018 TfL says that more than 16,000 advertisements ran on its network, generating about £152m, compared with £142m in 2016/2017. TfL sees advertising at the heart of its new growth strategy, which seek

A new national planning framework is urgently needed to place public transport, rather than car-based “low density sprawl”, at the heart of policy for new developments, says a new report by the Urban Transport Group. This would enable the “agglomeration” of economies – where firms benefit from close proximity to each other – and meet housing demand without making congestion and air quality worse, according to The Place To

Major improvements to Greater Manchester’s transport networks will play a vital role in supporting the conurbation’s spatial development over the next 20 years, according to the area’s new draft spatial plan. The revised draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework includes two major ‘development corridors’ to improve the north of the conurbation’s socio-economic fortunes. These will require hundreds of millions of pounds of investment in roads and public trans

New roads, bus rapid transit corridors, tram-trains, and light rail extensions all feature in the list of projects to be developed over the next five years to support Greater Manchester’s growth.   Transport for Greater Manchester’s draft delivery plan for 2020-2025 says business cases will be prepared for projects including:  • extending the Atherton branch of the Leigh-Salford-Manchester busway westwards to Wigan • a new road linking the M61 to the new A49 li

Transport for the West Midlands has become the first transport provider to offer mobile phone-based ticketing using the  ITSO specification, initially for users of the Metro light rail system.      ITSO Ltd manages the ITSO technical specification used by transport providers to implement smart ticketing schemes. The specification underpins concessionary travel smartcards and public transport smartcard products such as Swift in the West Midlands, Pop in Tyne and Wear, Walrus

Plans have been unveiled for a new entrance at Birmingham’s Snow Hill Station, which will make it easier for passengers to switch between local rail and tram services. An image of the new eastern entrance (left) has been released by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Independent infrastructure specialist Barhale has been appointed by TfWM to build the £1.5m project. Barhale will construct the entrance beneath the existing brick

Transport spending in Bristol and the surrounding area would have to more than double over the next 17 years to deliver a new transport plan prepared by the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) and the area’s four unitary authorities. The most expensive part of the £10bn estimated cost of the plan is a rail-based mass transit system, requiring underground running in places and with a price tag of £3bn-£5bn. David Carter, the West of England Combined Authority&rsquo

Transport for London this week put back the date for achieving an operating surplus by a year, to 2022/23, blaming the delayed opening of the Elizabeth line (Crossrail) and a  decline in bus passenger numbers.   The new business plan assumes that the delay to Crossrail opening will have a net operating impact (income and cost) of £600m over the next three years – £200m in 2019/20,  £300m in 2020/21, and £100m in 2021/22. The major impact is delayed p

Proposals for a light rail network serving Leeds and the wider conurbation have been published by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. It wants the system up and running in time for HS2 reaching the city, supposedly in 2033.  Alan Reiss, WYCA’s director of policy, strategy and communications told councillors: “Based on analysing the evidence around the current and forecast levels of demand, especially into Leeds city centre, by the time of HS2 opening in 2033 there is a need

Transport for London was already facing unprecedented financial challenges before the news came this summer that the opening of the central tunnel section of the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) between Paddington and Abbey Wood would be delayed from December until next autumn, and that additional cash was needed to complete the project.  A combination of the ending of the Government’s revenue grant, which had been worth £876m four years ago, the fares freeze imposed by mayor Sadiq K

Nuisance behaviour on the Manchester Metrolink trams could soon be hit with fines of up to £1,000, says Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). A marketing and social media to be launched in January next year will warn that flouting Metrolink byelaws will lead to prosecution. The latest TfGM Monsters campaign will focus on swearing, the use of vaporisers and littering. Monster characters such as Smoky Joe, Drunken Duncan and Vaping Vera will appear at on adverts at tramstops an

Mark Wild is to become chief executive at Crossrail Ltd on 19 November to oversee the opening of the new Elizabeth Line. He moves to the temporary post from London Underground, where he has served as managing director since June 2016. He will return to his role at London Underground once the Elizabeth line has opened through central London. He will initially work alongside Simon Wright, who will step down as chief executive of Crossrail Ltd later this year.  Last week, an interim financin

Bus operators are claiming that their revenues have been undermined by Merseytravel’s youth ticket, which is not conditional on showing proof of age. Merseytravel denies there is a significant problem with misuse and says it wants its MyTicket product to be easily available, without forms to complete. MyTicket was introduced in 2014 for young people aged five to 15. In 2015, the upper age limit was increased to 18. My-Ticket currently costs £2.20 for a day’s unlimited bus trav

The inauguration of tram-train services between Sheffield and Rotherham on Thursday was a milestone in the development of light rail in the UK. Tram-trains are common in continental Europe but a UK pilot was deemed necessary because some characteristics, such as station platform heights, are different in Britain from overseas. A short new connection enables the seven tram-trains to leave Sheffield’s Supertram system and run on Network Rail track to Rotherham Central, where a new spur line

Liverpool City Region's Mayor, Steve Rotheram, speaking at Smarter Travel LIVE!, last week, referred to the Office of Road and Rail’s report into a summer of rail chaos which found “systematic failures from government, Network Rail and the rail operators” leading to collapsed services and missed chances to avoid disruption. “Can you honestly imagine chaos on that scale being allowed to happen in London and the South East without major government intervention,” he as

I’ve done my fair share of travel behaviour change programmes in my time. These programmes often succeed in getting more people cycling, walking and using public transport more often but, when we ask people their primary reason for making a change, the main reason is something to do with personal health and fitness. Similarly, when we come to evaluating programmes, the largest benefits tend to reside in health improvement rather than ‘transport’ benefits. So, I was interested

Corethree bills itself as the “world’s leading mobile ticket provider”. It issued its 50 millionth m-ticket in February this year – sold through apps developed for transport operators large and small across the UK. Corethree’s customers include a wide range of operators and authorities including First Bus, Arriva, Santander Cycles, Translink, Lothian Buses, My Get Me There (Transport for Greater Manchester), McGills Buses and Go Ahead. But, on 3 September, everythi

A segregated rapid transit through green belt land is the favoured public transport option for south-east of Cambridge after on-street bus lanes were ruled to be inconsistent with the long-term plan for a new form of public transport, Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro.  The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP), a joint committee of councils responsible for the area’s City Deal, has been exploring options for public transport priority in the A1307 corridor, which is home to a number of m

Crossrail has announced a delay of almost a year in the completion of London’s new Elizabeth Line, which means it will not open until the autumn of 2019. The new East-West route across London had originally been scheduled for opening in December 2018. Crossrail is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that is jointly sponsored by TfL and the Department for Transport. Once the railway is complete, it will be run by TfL. The delay was revealed on 31 August. The company s

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has ordered future park-and-ride sites to be built as temporary facilities so that they can be removed again when Cambridgeshire’s proposed new Metro public transport system is opened. The decision affects new park-and-ride facilities planned on three roads in the vicinity of Cambridge: the A10, the A1307, and the M11.  The P&R sites are integral parts of wider transport improvements for each corridor currently being pursued by

Painting a picture of the changing use of our transport system is not easy. A picture composed only of averages or aggregate change amounts to clumsy brush strokes. The finer detail in the picture comes from the artist’s ability to reflect the diversity of components of change – the distributions from which the averages arise. The Department for Transport's latest statistical release, 'Road Traffic Estimates: Great Britain 2017'  attempts to paint a picture, including fine

A fleet of 54 new air-conditioned trains has been ordered for London Overground. The trains are being built at Bombardier Transport's UK site in Derby. The new train fleet, which forms part of the Mayor's Transport Strategy, will initially come into service on the Gospel Oak to Barking route, operated by Arriva Rail London on behalf of Transport for London (TfL).  The Class 710 trains feature walk-through carriages for greater capacity, carrying around 700 people per train. They

To mark Clean Air Day 0n 21 June, free travel is being offered on Manchester’s Metrolink light rail service for commuters travelling before 7am and after 7pm. The move, by Metrolink owner Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), is part of a drive to encourage people to think about changing travel habits to improve air quality. TfGM wants employers to consider flexible start and end times for their staff so they can take advantage of the free travel offer. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy

Anna Delveccio, who started her transport engineering career as a teenager, has received the top honour at the 2018 FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards.  Launched 11 years ago, the awards programme celebrates women transforming transport and logistics in the UK. The winners included women working for transport organisations including Heathrow Airport, Royal Mail, Merseytravel and Transport for London.  The Woman of the Year Award was presented to Anna Delvecchio, Comme

If any budding student of project management had the time, then Edinburgh has been the place to be for the last nine months as the inquiry into the city’s tram debacle took oral evidence from scores of witnesses. In all, the inquiry, chaired by Lord Hardie, took evidence for 59 days. The hearings came to an end last month with closing statements from legal representatives of some of the main participants. Hardie is now preparing his final report, drawing not only on the oral and written ev

Trams in London will go ‘cashless’ on 16 July 2018, with payment only accepted by Oyster or contactless cards. This follows the successful introduction of cashless payment on buses across London in July 2014, says Transport for London (TfL). This year less than 66 paper single tickets a day were sold across entire tram network, with many now travelling using Oyster or contactless payment, says TfL. Ticket machines, which were installed when the tram system opened in 2000, will be

“You can never have too much government,” said no-one, ever. Yet Cambridgeshire is groaning under the weight of local government. There’s a county council, a unitary, five districts, and 260 town and parish councils. A local enterprise partnership was formed in 2010; the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire in 2014; and a mayoral combined authority in 2017. The LEP is being resurrected as a business board within the combined authority after

A simplified fares and ticketing system is set to be introduced across Greater Manchester’s Metro light rail service. This would involve a flexible four-zone system, designed to deliver to easy to understand and better value fares for passengers across the network. If the change is approved by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the system would be launched in early 2019, cutting the current 8,500 stop-to-stop fare combinations to just 10 zone-based fares. It would also help to

The 36 finalists in the 2018 FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards have been announced. Now in its eleventh year, the awards programme celebrates the achievements of women in the UK’s transport and logistics industry.  This year’s finalists include women working for transport organisations including Heathrow Express, Merseytravel, Network Rail, Transport for London and West Midlands Trains. The UK transport and logistics industry employs around 2.4 million people.

In dismissing the idea of installing a modern tramway in Bath, Francis King offers no realistic alternative options for solving the city's dire problems with growing traffic congestion and worsening air quality (Letters LTT 13 Apr).  His assertion that none of Bath’s local bus services enjoy ridership levels that might justify upgrading to tram is no reason to eliminate this mode from the solution to these problems. Indeed, France’s refusal to rule out trams is precisely what l

Transport for Greater Manchester is to purchase more than 20 new Metrolink vehicles with funding from its share of the  DfT’s £1.7bn Transforming Cities Fund.  Of the £243m allocated to Greater Manchester, £160m will be used to deliver walking and cycling infrastructure (LTT 05 Jan) and the remaining £83m will fund additional trams for Metrolink.  The Metrolink fleet currently consists of 120 vehicles, of which 108 are required to deliver peak hour

Strong backing for the tram as an efficient mode of public transport in the UK appeared in a rather surprising source on 9 April – the high technology magazine Wired. “The UK used to be covered in trams, with networks in virtually every city and town, but now just eight (or six, depending on what you include) British metro areas use a light-rail system,” technology journalist Nicole Kobie began. “[But] could they be set for a comeback? “The popularity of Edinburgh

The DfT’s cartographers may be ace at roads and railways but ask them to plot the UK’s airports and they’re flummoxed. This map from the DfT’s stakeholder briefing document for the West Coast rail partnership franchise shows Glasgow and Edinburgh airport in completely wrong locations. Things are no better south of the border, with Manchester Airport placed east of Manchester Piccadilly, and Liverpool John Lennon Airport west of Lime Street.  Political leaders in

Prices for the UK’s first Mobility as a Service (MaaS) subscription packages have been announced, ahead of their launch in the West Midlands conurbation next week.  Finnish firm MaaS Global is offering two subscription packages for its Whim-branded MaaS, which the company says is the world’s only monthly mobility product. The products aim to persuade the public to give up car ownership.   Chris Perry, the UK lead for MaaS Global, this week outlined the packages – Wh

It’s almost 40 years ago that Tyne and Wear set the pace for urban rail transport in Britain, with the opening of the Tyne and Wear Metro in 1980. Combining converted British Rail lines and some new build track, the Metro was an advert for the strong metropolitan governance provided by the Tyne and Wear Metropolitan County Council and the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive (PTE). Other metropolitan areas tried to follow Tyne and Wear’s lead with rail-based rapid transit plan

Transport for London is cutting its operating costs at a faster rate than the decline in its operating income, and on course to make a larger operating surplus than budgeted for in 2017/18. Performance in 2017/18 up to 3 February was reported to this week’s meeting of TfL’s board. Passenger income is £87m (2 per cent) below budget, at £3.956bn versus £4.043bn. Other operating income is £55m (8 per cent) below budget, at £616m versus £671m. Total

The Campaign for Better Transport has announced it is looking to appoint a new chief executive office to replace Stephen Joseph, who will be stepping down at the end of Autumn. Joseph was appointed executive director of Transport 2000 in 1988, the same year Michael Palin was appointed President, and received an OBE in 1996 for services to transport and the environment. Transport 2000 changed its name to Campaign for Better Transport in 2007. During his 30-year tenure with the charity, Joseph

Plans to extend the Metropolitan Line to Watford Junction have collapsed amid a dispute over who should pay for additional project costs.  The scheme would have featured two new stations in Watford on a disused railway alignment. The existing Metropolitan Line terminus in the suburbs of Watford would have closed.  Hertfordshire County Council originally promoted the project but the plans were beset by cost rises and delays. In 2015 the Government brokered an agreement with then Londo

The achievements of women working in the transport and logistics centre will be recognised by the FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards. Currently in its eleventh year, the awards are designed to showcase the role women play in the future of transport and logistics. Maxine Benson

Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) is sounding out light rail manufacturers about  plans to procure 50 trams to operate on an expanded Midland Metro network.  The vehicles will be needed to cover the extensions to Edgbaston and Eastside in Birmingham (seven-nine); Wednesbury to Brierley Hill (22); and East Birmingham and Solihull (20).  They must be capable of operating in catenary-free environments, such as with fuel cells. Sections of route in Birmingham and Wolverhampton

The liquidation of construction and contracting company Carillion this week sent shockwaves through the transport sector, with some rival companies warning of losses because of their involvement with Carillion in joint infrastructure contracts.  Public sector officials expect Carillion’s work to continue without significant interruption, but some of the specialist subcontractors engaged by Carillion have been plunged into financial difficulties and have started to make staff redundan

Transport for London has cut its expectations of public transport fare revenues over the next five years by £1.6bn.  The organisation’s new business plan to 2022/23, published just before Christmas, features markedly lower fare revenue projections than those in the business plan to 2021/22 published in December 2016.  The December 2016 plan projected fares revenues of £4.877bn in 2017/18. The new plan forecasts revenues for the year of £4.638bn – £

Transport for London (TfL) has announced that Gareth Powell, director of public transport and strategy, will be its new managing director, surface transport. He takes over from Leon Daniels with immediate effect. Powell joined TfL from consultant Atkins in 2003 in a business improvement and performance role. Since then he has held a number of roles in group business planning and performance before taking a lead role in the re-organisation of TfL. He went on to join London Underground as direct

Coventry City Council has given more details of its plans to pioneer Very Light Rail technology, in a report seeking £12.2m of funding for development work from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). The programme to develop lightweight rail vehicles and lightweight track is being promoted by Coventry City Council, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick, and  supported by Transport for the West Midlands. Of the £

Legislation that will make Transport for the North (TfN) the first statutory sub-national transport body with its own legal powers and duties were laid in Parliament. The move to put TfN on a statutory footing means that its recommendations must be formally considered by the government. The Department for Transport (DfT) also confirmed the award of £18.5m from a £150m government fund for TfN’s smart ticketing programme. TfN will use this to introduce paper

London Overground has celebrated its first decade of successful operations. The operation, which is the third largest rail operator in the UK, commemorated its first 10 years of service on Saturday 11 November 2017.

The regulatory environment for road transport needs to be overhauled to make it fit for emerging forms of mobility products and services, Michael Hurwitz, Transport for London’s director of transport innovation, has told the London Assembly’s transport committee inquiry into future transport.    Said Hurwitz: “The regulations were set in the 1970s and the 1990s, and the world of transport in those days was crudely speaking as follows: you had a car or you took a priv

Local transport has long held an important place on the political agenda, though it moves up and down the rankings as other challenges and issues assert their own significance. Global level matters like Brexit, terrorism and international conflicts apart, there are things with a degree of equivalence in the political landscape – the NHS, education, policing and social welfare, for example – jockeying for position with congestion, the state of the roads (or railways), cycling, parking

Proposals for two new London Overground stations connecting to the Elizabeth line and High Speed 2 (HS2) have been published by Transport for London (TfL).  New stations at Old Oak and Park Royal in west London would form part of a major regeneration project, which would aim to deliver 25,500 new homes and 65,000 jobs in then area.  Improved local transport infrastructure, including connections to the London Overground network, would bring up to 250,000 more people and 150,000 additi

The UK has much to learn from other countries when it comes to maximising the economic, social and environmental benefits of railway stations, according to a report published by the Campaign for Better Transport. Development around stations: Exploring international experience and lessons for the UK examines the international experience of creating development hubs around railway stations and the benefits that they can bring. The report has been published by the campaign's

A new set of road use rules devised specifically for London is among the ideas proposed by an independent commission studying ways of making the capital’s highways work more efficiently. A ‘Movement Code’ is one of a series of policies proposed by the Commission on the Future of London’s Roads and Streets, convened by the Centre for London think-tank with the aim of developing new thinking on what can be done to manage the conflicting pressures on the capital's surface t

Commuters in London are being made to contemplate the experience of asylum seekers fleeing the war in Syria by a film being projected at King’s Cross Tube station in London.  The Bureaucracy of Angels, by London-based artists Broomberg and Chanarin is the latest commission from Art on the Underground. It will run on a screen in the station until 25 November.  The 12-minute film records the demolition of 100 migrant boats in Sicily in the winter of 2016. The boats arrived carryi

Proposals for a very light rail (VLR) service in Coventry have been unveiled. The WMG research and development group at the University of Warwick delivered early vehicle concept designs to representatives from Coventry City Council. The £6m project would be funded by the Government’s Local Growth Fund through the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and West Midlands Combined Authority Devolution Deal. VLR would be a cheaper, quieter and more friendly alternative t

Judging from this year’s Smarter Travel LIVE! programme, there will be a great deal of discussion about the future of transport, intelligent mobility and smart cities. Five years ago the conference’s focus was on ‘Rebooting Smarter Travel’ and we were just getting to grips with the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF). Since then much has changed; we continue to make progress but we also have an eye on the future. We wonder what cities of the future will look like and

It’s a depressingly familiar story: a transport project runs millions of pounds over budget and is delivered years late. Yet Edinburgh’s first tram line managed to excel in the fiasco stakes. In 2008 councillors awarded the construction contract for an 11.5-mile route connecting the city’s airport in the west with Newhaven in the north via Edinburgh city centre. The project’s expected costs were £508m and opening was scheduled for 2011. But problems mounted, delays

An internal report shows that a decision to shelve a 2km railway line in New South Wales was taken without an assessment of costs and benefits, it has been reported in the Australian press.The Sydney Morning Herald reported as a state government decision to "burn cash" a $200m "sunk cost" that came after no assessment was made of the costs of a light rail replacement for the Sydney to Newcastle rail link. It reported that transport minister Andrew Constance defended spending $200,000 i

Bus passenger journeys and revenues in London are running ahead of budget in 2017/18, according to figures released by Transport for London.  Passenger journeys up to 22 July were 711 million, 3.3% above the forecast of 688 million. Fare income was £452m, 2.3% above  the £442m forecast. TfL attributes the better performance to “increased bus speeds and improved bus reliability”. London Underground patronage and revenues are below expectations. Patronage is 42

The London Assembly has appointed Arthur Leathley as the new chairman of London TravelWatch, the statutory watchdog for the capital’s transport users.  Leathley has senior level experience as a communications director in the private sector and Whitehall. In particular, he spent nine years at Virgin Trains, followed by stints as communications director at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and as director of cross-government communications for bo

Air quality in the Spanish city of Barcelona deteriorates by as much as 48% during public transport strikes, researchers have found. The study found that alterations in public transport could trigger a rise in the number of private vehicle trips, which in turn increases air pollution levels.

A tram route extension linking Birmingham city centre with Edgbaston and the city’s growing Westside area given go-ahead, by the Department for Transport (DfT). Five new stops will be served by up to 10 trams an hour at peak when the 2km extension of the Midland Metro, from Grand Central, outside Birmingham New Street station, to Edgbaston opens in March 2021. The £59.8m pledge from the DfT completes the total £149m funding for the project, with £84m having already been

Bristol City Council has ordered a study of an underground light rail system for the conurbation, which could use driverless vehicles.  The “pre-feasibility study” will “identify the viability of light rail underground systems to provide a rapid transit system across the West of England”. The West of England authorities are Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, and North Somerset.  Bristol says the study should investigate a system &ldq

A three-mile extension of Edinburgh’s tram line into the north of the city could cost £165m and double the system’s patronage, the city council said this week.  The plan would see the  airport to city centre line extended beyond its York Place terminus to Newhaven, via Leith Walk and the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. Edinburgh’s transport and environment committee will be asked next week to authorise the procurement of a contractor for the project. However,

The outline business case for extending the Edinburgh tram system has been published by City of Edinburgh Council. If approved, Leith and Newhaven and Newhaven will be added to the network. The capital cost of the project is estimated to be £165.2m, including risk and inflation through to project completion. The overall construction programme is estimated to be approximately three years plus four months for testing and commissioning. The line is projected to be open to passengers in the

The cost of building the Bristol MetroBus rapid transit system (RTS) has risen to around £230m, Bristol City Council has revealed. The scheme was initially budgeted to cost £190m in 2015, but costs have risen in the interim. Most recently they have increased by £10m from the £220m estimate put on the project in November 2016, a report to the council’s cabinet reveals. The report cites contractor cost overruns, design changes and problems of contaminated land dispo

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has introduced a new smartcard for use on the city’s tram and bus services. The ‘get me there’ travel card is the latest phase in the phased introduction of smartcard technology by the authority. TfGM has been working with

The Twentieth Century Society is launching a campaign to save Southwark Tube Station from the threat of partial demolition as part of a project to build a 30-storey housing development on the site. The society is submitting a formal challenge to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s decision to turn down its application to have the tube station listed. The department’s decision was made on the advice of Historic England, whose report did not recommend the building fo

Reported sexual offences on trains have more than doubled in the past five years, according to British Transport Police (BTP) figures obtained by the BBC. The police statistics show 1,448 offences were reported in 2016-17, up from 650 in 2012-2013. The majority of the incidents were sexual assaults on f

A guide offering organisations in the Square Mile practical advice on how to get employees to switch to active travel is out now. 'Safer in the City' – Best Practice Guide 2017 has been developed by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the Active City Network – a forum created to promote safe active travel. The guide is full of case studies and interviews highlighting initiatives in a number of organisations across the City of London including the Bank of England, Nomu

DfT officials recommended cancelling the South Yorkshire tram-train trial last year as costs ballooned, but they were overruled by rail minister Paul Maynard, a National Audit Office investigation has revealed.  The trial of tram-train vehicles running on-street and over heavy rail lines between Sheffield and Rotherham was announced by the DfT in 2012. The DfTwanted to test operational issues and develop new industry standards. Involving the DfT, Network Rail and South Yorkshire PTE, the

The illustrations in London mayor Sadiq Khan’s new draft transport strategy don’t contain many cars but that’s not surprising: the mayor wants to cut the share of passenger trips made by car/taxi/private hire vehicles from 36% in 2015 to 20% in 2041, with the share made by walking, cycling and public transport rising from 64% to 80%. “The success of London’s future transport system relies upon reducing Londoners’ dependency on cars in favour of increased walki

Transport for London is  to install two new safety devices on Tramlink in Croydon in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the fatal derailment in 2016 when a tram travelled too fast round a curve and overturned. The tramway currently operates using signals that advise the driver to proceed or stop. The trams also feature a device that is similar to a ‘dead man’s handle’ on a train.  TfL has now approached the market for the supply of an automatic vehicle speed monitori

Cambridgeshire County Council is commissioning a study of bus improvements in a corridor where Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s new elected mayor wants a light rail line. A comparative study of bus and light rail is also to be commissioned.  Cambridgeshire’s tender notice for the Cambourne to Cambridge better bus journeys market research study says: “We would like to create better bus journeys by improving the existing, or creating new bus infrastructure, and where possi

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Conservative mayor James Palmer has promised to investigate an underground metro system for Cambridge; a light rail link between Cambourne and Cambridge; and an upgrade to the A10, which connects Cambridge, Ely and King[s Lynn. Palmer was previously leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council.

Transport for London (TfL) is selling its brand worldwide in a bid to generate a revenue stream to invest in new projects in the capital.  TfL has signed a five-year deal with brand licensing expert TSBA Group to market symbols such as the London Tube map and the roundel logo. David Ellis, Head of IPR Development for Transport for London, says: “Our partnership with TSBA provides us with the expertise to re-align and expand our licensing programme and keep pace with the global

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its light rail tram system. The Metrolink system opened on 6 April 1992, and is now the UK’s largest tram network. When the service opened, the route operated between on the outskirts of Greater Manchester and Victoria rail station in the city centre. Since then, the service has expanded to a 60-mile network, with 93 stops served by 120 trams, and catering for more than 37m passengers a year. Andrew Fender, ch

Transport for London is to procure a new fleet of Docklands Light Railway (DLR) trains to replace much of the existing fleet and increase network capacity. The DLR currently operates 149 light rail vehicles (LRVs), supplied by Bombardier. These operate in two or three-car formations. Two-thirds of the fleet was delivered between 1990 and 1992 and TfL says the vehicles have reached the end of their design life, and suffer from deteriorating reliability.  The network carries 115 million pas

The proposal for an Advanced Very Rapid Transit system in Cambridge sounds revolutionary but only when we saw a picture of the vehicle’s interior did we realise just how revolutionary it is. The information display on the seat backs reveals that the rubber-tyred vehicle is travelling at 740mph – faster than a jumbo jet. “We’re removed that, it was issued in error,” explains a spokeswoman, adding that the top speed is still a handsome 120mph.  One thing tha

Capacity on the Metrolink light rail system across Manchester city centre has been boosted with the opening of the second city crossing last weekend. The 1.3km piece of track runs from a transformed Deansgate-Castlefield stop to a major new stop at St Peter’s Square, then along Cross Street to stops at Exchange Square and Victoria. The line’s opening marks the completion of the Metrolink ‘big bang’ project, which commenced in 2009, and has extended the network so that it

Life used to be simple in the transport world. People generally owned cars, used public transport or walked and cycled. OK, I am guilty of opening with what is probably a false premise, but stick with me for now. As the boundaries between private and public transport blur through the emergence of shared models and new forms of ownership, maybe the discussion could shift to private and public spaces of travel. Put another way, if the future means that we summon pods to whisk us to our destination

The second Metrolink light rail line through Manchester city centre is due to open on Monday 26 February, owner Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has announced.  The Second City Crossing will connect the expanded St Peter’s Square stop via Princess Street and Cross Street with Exchange Square and Victoria Station. Operator RATP Dev is putting 250 drivers through a training programme to prepare them for the launch of the new line. The training programme includes the use of soft

It was all going so well for Vivarail. A clever idea that had been turned into reality and been applauded by many in the rail industry. And a high profile trial, due to start in the West Midlands, which was designed to show what its D-train concept could achieve. But then an engine caught fire during the final stages of an extensive testing and certification process and it all came to an abrupt halt. Or did it? Those who’ve been to Vivarail’s Long Marston depot in Warwickshire can&rs

“How do you attract the best talent to help improve public transport?” Mohamed Mezghani, the deputy secretary general of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), asked in The Guardian on 6 February.  “Faced with fierce competition from more ‘glamorous’ industries such as airlines, car manufacturers, financial services and tech startups, public transport has sometimes struggled to be seen as the place for a great career. “Public transpor

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has highlighted TfL modelling suggesting "unprecedented" crowding on the tube by the early 2030s without Crossrail 2 as The Evening Standard claimed ministers were "going cold" on the £30bn scheme. Khan said the capital will "grind to a halt" as he released modelling results indicating that there would be five or more people standing per square metre on some lines and regular closures at 17 Underground station

Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) has appointed consultants to prepare a roadmap for the introduction of contactless ticketing across all public transport in the conurbation. PA Consulting Group will set a vision; review available back office facilities (including Transport for London’s); estimate the costs and benefits of contactless; and develop a delivery timeline.  TfWM wants the system to have a capping facility, whereby the user would be charged the cheapest fare based on

Council leaders in the Sheffield City Region have approved a 5% cut in the levy paid to the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive in 2017/18. Further cuts of 2.5% a year are planned for 2018/19-2020/21. The PTE’s levy in 2017/18 will fall by about £3m, from £60.5m to £57.4m.  It is then expected to fall to £56m in 2018/19, £54.6m in 2019/20, and £53.5m in 2020/21. Adult concessionary fares reimbursement to bus operators will be cut by &po

Low cost measures to reduce car use, such as personalised travel plans, car sharing, and free trials of public transport, may not be as effective as previous studies have claimed, according to research commissioned by the DfT. The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) worked with Heathrow’s Commuter Team to test a range of ‘smarter choice’ behaviour change interventions with Heathrow Airport’s 76,000 employees, who are employed by 350 different companies. BIT is a social purpo

There is much about the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) that has been generating widespread enthusiasm worldwide from many different interests. From everyone concerned with climate change and pollution, to those involved with transport sharing service schemes from car to bike, to rail and bus operators and public transport authorities, to transport ticketing and payments software suppliers, and even car manufacturers recognising the potential for car pools. These are just some of the man

Councils in the Glasgow city-region have released £14m to design a tram-train connection to Glasgow Airport.  Renfrewshire Council will prepare a full business case for the rail link to Glasgow Central station. Services would use the existing railway between Glasgow and  Paisley Gilmour Street before accessing the airport via a new light rail spur off the Gourock/Wemyss Bay line. Construction could begin in 2022 with the line opening in 2025. Renfrewshire’s outline busine

Two new rail connections opened this week, with Chiltern Railways launching direct services between London Marylebone and Oxford city centre, and a new train-tram interchange opening in west Edinburgh.  Chiltern’s half-hourly service between London and Oxford marks the completion of a £330m rail upgrade. Services commenced to the new Oxford Parkway station in the north-east of the city last October but the line through to Oxford’s city centre station only opened this week

Edinburgh’s newest train-tram interchange opened for commuter travel on 11 December. The £41m Edinburgh Gateway, in the west of the city, offers increased travel options for passengers from Fife and the north giving easier access to the Edinburgh tram network and the city’s airport. The new station has two 265 metre, 10-car platforms with 1,500 metre squared concourse and circulation space. A step-free access bridge links the platforms within the station and connects to the tr

The transport secretary Chris Grayling today took to the airwaves to deride a claim from the London Mayor that under Transport for London's control capacity would be increased on commuter routes in South East England. The Mayor Sadiq Khan used social media to encourage commuters affected by on-going strike action on Southern Rail services to urge them to back his campaign to take control of Southern, Southeastern and South West train lines. "You'd get a more frequent, reliable service with fewe

No more pure diesel double-deck buses will be added to London’s fleet from 2018, that all new single-decks for central London will be zero-emission, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has revealed. A new hydrogen-powered double-decker will be trialled on London’s roads next year.  Sadiq Khan unveiled the vehicle, built by UK bus manufacturer Wrightbus, during an international zero-emission bus conference at City Hall. The

Air quality alerts have been issued to the travelling public by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan for the first time. The warning messages were displayed on electronic signs at bus stops, in Tube stations and at roadside on 1 December. The previous mayor, Boris Johnson, had made air pollution alerts available through a subscription text service. The alerts are now being displayed at 2,500 bus stops and river piers, at the entrances of all 270 Tube stations and on 140 signs next to the busiest main roa

The tram that crashed in Croydon earlier this month, killing seven people, was travelling at more than three times the speed limit, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has revealed.  An interim report from the RAIB said the tram derailed and overturned on a curve as it approached Sandilands Junction in Croydon, south London, at 6.07am on 9 November.  The RAIB noted that some braking was applied in the 180 metres before the 12.5mph speed restriction board but this only reduc

The Leigh to Ellenbrook guided busway is, alongside key changes within Manchester city centre and along Oxford Road, a flagship element of Transport for Greater Manchester’s ‘bus priority package’. The £122m scheme is the largest single investment in Greater Manchester’s bus network in decades, and sees more than 25 miles of routes either created from scratch or vastly improved. A combination of brand new infrastructure and an overhaul of existing bus measures ensur

Transport for Greater Manchester has revealed the weekday service pattern for Metrolink when the second city centre crossing (2CC) opens early next year (see table). The new line will run from Lower Mosley Street, through St Peter Square – where a four platform stop has recently been built – then along Princess Street, Cross Street and Corporation Street before rejoining the existing Metrolink line near Victoria station.   TfGM is currently procuring an operating and maintenan

With a population of nearly 2.5 million people in its greater metropolitan area, Vienna is the largest city in Austria. The city is actively taking forward measures to improve sustainable transport, including stringent parking space management and improving conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. These policies are outlined in STEP 2025, Vienna City Council's Urban Development Plan, of which Andreas Trisko, Head of Department of Urban Development and Planning, City of Vienna, was a key contribu

Sixteen youths from Oldham have been fined a total of more than £2,600 for dodging fares on the Metrolink tram network in Greater Manchester. The youths were caught during operations to tackle fare-dodging by Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM) Travelsafe Unit and Metrolink owner RATP Dev Ltd. Since the unit was established 18 months ago, uniformed Travelsafe Unit (TSU) officers have also been visiting schools across the region to educate youngsters on the dangers, impacts and

The Midlands Metro Alliance has applied to build and operate an extension to the light rail system to Digbeth to serve the proposed HS2 station at Curzon Street. The £137m extension would link all of the city centre railway stations and Birmingham Coach Station and is designed to improve access to the jobs for the unemployed and to spread the benefits of HS2, as well as to improve existing business travel. Work is scheduled to begin in 2019 and the line to open in 2023, according to the p

The Urban Transport Group is telling the political parties that the city regions are delivering transport improvements but are stymied by fluctuating local transport funding and uncertainty over bus franchising. The transport authorities' report highlights the expansion of the Manchester Metrolink, overhaul of the Tyne and Wear Metro and introduction of cycleways as evidence of success but says that Government makes the job harder with unpredictable transport funding subject to resource-hungry

The creation of the West Midlands Combined Authority has meant big changes in the conurbation, including the abolition of Centro, the delivery arm of the Integrated Transport Authority, and the creation of a new body, Transport for West Midlands. Managing director Laura Shoaf tells Peter Plisner about TfWM’s exciting agenda for improving transport Although she probably knows more about transport than anyone else in the West Midlands, Laura Shoaf isn’t actually from these parts. She

West midlands Combined Authority has revealed details of the financial deal that will see a former London Underground train trialled on the Coventry-Nuneaton line, the first passenger-carrying trial of the vehicles.  The Class 230 ‘D-Train’ has been developed by Vivarail using refurbished London Underground District Line surface stock built in the 1980s. Vivarail hopes the D Trains will present an attractive low-cost solution to capacity problems at a time when there is a natio

Transport for London has published a new map of zones 1 and 2 of the London Underground, showing how many steps it takes to walk between neighbouring stations. Oxford Circus to Tottenham Court Road is 900 steps; Leicester Square to Covent Garden 400; Victoria to Green Park 1,900; and Euston to King’s Cross St Pancras 1,200. The Walking Steps Map is intended to encourage travellers to walk rather than take the Tube for short journeys, helping to relieve pressure on the Tube network. The map

Transport project promoters should prepare ‘handover packs’, setting out the key assumptions and forecasts in the scheme’s appraisal,  to help later evaluations of project performance, according to a new report published by the DfT.  The report on strengthening the links between appraisal and evaluation was prepared by consultant Frontier Economics. It interviewed experts in appraisal and evaluation and conducted four case studies of projects, looking at the existing

Bob Kiley, London’s first transport commissioner, has died at the age of 80. American-born Kiley was appointed transport commissioner by London’s first mayor, Ken Livingstone, in 2001, and served until 2006.  Sir Peter Hendy, who succeeded Kiley as transport commissioner, said: “Bob prompted Ken to be an even bolder mayor than he would have naturally been. His choreography of the opposition to the ill-fated PPP for the Underground was superb, even if at the time unsuccess

With former London mayor Boris Johnson now ensconced as foreign secretary, there has been a growing body of criticism of his accomplishments (or otherwise) when running the national’s capital. “It said much about Boris Johnson’s eight-year performance as mayor of London that when the reviews came in, the highlight was often a fleet of buses,” said columnist Catherine Bennett in The Guardian on 25 July. “Three years and the latest heatwave on, consumer experience con

LOCAL AUTHORITIES in South East England are exploring the merits of establishing a statutory sub-national transport body (STB).  Discussions are at an early stage and the geography has yet to be finalised. The initial thinking is that the body could stretch from Kent in the east to Hampshire in the west.  Becky Shaw, chief executive of East Sussex County Council, told councillors this week that talks with the DfT had established that the Department was “committed to the creatio

Rail minister Claire Perry has resigned shortly after telling MPs that quitting her job would help resolve problems with train services in South East England and London. There have been repeated cancellations and late-running services on the Southern Rail service, which is run by Govia Thameslink Railway. Services on Southern have been by industrial action and high levels of staff sickness. Earlier this week the company sought to ease the problems by cutting around 340 trains a day, but th

Oxford Street will be pedestrianised by 2020, the mayor of London's office has announced. All traffic, including buses and taxis, will be banned from the shopping street as part of mayor Sadiq Khan’s plans to reduce air pollution in the capital. Valerie Shawcross, London's deputy mayor for transport, told the London Assembly on Wednesday that the plan was to ban all traffic along Oxford Street from Tottenham Court Road as far as Marble Arch.

POST-OPENING evaluations are a requirement for many major transport schemes nowadays and a new report published by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)  presents a ‘one year after opening’ evaluation of three extensions to the conurbation’s Metrolink light rail network. The extensions – to Oldham and Rochdale town centres; East Didsbury; and Ashton-under-Lyne – are part of the wider Metrolink Phase 3 expansion programme. They were part-funded by the DfT and

ELECTRIFICATION OF the Valley Lines in South Wales could be among transport schemes denied EU funding in the wake of the UK’s Brexit referendum result. Projects in places such as Northern Ireland and Cornwall could also be hit. The EU had earmarked €10.8bn in 2014-20 for the UK from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund. Allocations  were €6.9bn for England, €2.4bn for Wales, €895m for Scotland, €513m for Northern Ireland and &eu

Despite the near-saturation coverage of the referendum on EU membership prior to the actual vote on 23 June, debate on transport issues was notable primarily by its absence in the media. There were a few exceptions, however. In The Huffington Post on 15 June, for example, self-proclaimed left-wing blogger Will Porter suggested that we should all vote to stay in the EU due to the lamentable (in Porter’s opinion) track record of leading ‘Brexit’ politician Boris Johnson whilst ma

From demand forecasting and scheme appraisal, to recommending new infrastructure and demand management policies, the National Infrastructure Commission is set to play a big part in the country’s transport policy and planning.  THE IDEA of a National Infrastructure Commission to advise on the nation’s infrastructure needs was first put forward by former Network Rail chief executive Sir John Armitt in a report for Labour in 2014. The idea has since been embraced by the Conservati

Australia's opposition Labor party has promised to spend around $1.50 for every dollar the governing Coalition has on infrastructure projects, according to a national newspaper analysis. Fairfax Media said in The Sydney Morning Herald that the fact that Labor has promised at least $3.5bn in spending for state projects during the campaign - including $1bn for the Perth Metronet alone - compared to the Coalition's $2.3bn in pledges "could prompt a renewed attack on its economic management".

The outcome of the UK’s referendum on European Union membership on 23 June could have big implications for a wide range of transport policies and operations, even though transport has received little coverage in the debate that has dominated the media for weeks.   Andrew Petry, a partner in law firm Simmons-Simmons, who is an expert on EU infrastructure and its procurement, summarises how the referendum debate has tended to generate more heat than light. “Nobody has the answers

A summit convened in Leeds to decide a way forward after the DfT killed off a long-planned trolleybus scheme will lack "genuine expertise," but will "consist largely of those responsible for the debacle," according to Bradford council leader. Writing in The Yorkshire Post, Simon Cooke accused West Yorkshire leaders of arranging a summit with "a few people with some limited knowledge of transport planning," after the DfT refused

The Government's decision to axe the Leeds trolleybus scheme (LTT 13 May) attracted a large amount of coverage in the local media, very little of which could be called positive for Leeds’ decision-makers. For example, after acknowledging that “ministers had little choice” in making this decision, The Yorkshire Post on 12 May said, “This… is the culmination of three decades of political failure. “Nearly 30 years after plans were first floated to build a state

London’s new mayor Sadiq Khan has appointed Val Shawcross CBE (pictured) as his deputy mayor for transport and as his deputy chair of Transport for London. Shawcross has served on the London Assembly for 16 years (2000-2016). For the last eight years she has been Labour’s transport spokesperson and chair and deputy chair of the Assembly’s transport committee. She is a former leader of the London Borough of Croydon. Khan has also proposed the appointment of Lord Adonis as chair

Campaigners in the Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign have attracted media coverage with a video they made to highlight difficulties cyclists encounter with new cycling routes around a Metrolink tram stop. The video of new provision at Exchange Square shows cyclists competing for space with buses, trams and even large numbers of pedestrians, cycle lanes ending in lay-bys, and cyclists having to cross multiple tram tracks at shallow angles, commenting that it is a "good job that track's not wet

The DfT is studying ways to improve the quality of transport decision-making by reducing cognitive biases such as optimism bias, and the phenomenon known as groupthink. The department has appointed the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to develop tools to reduce the influence of bias and groupthink on decision-making within transport project management.  BIT began life within 10 Downing Street as the world’s first government institution dedicated to the application of behavioural scie

Labour’s Sadiq Khan (pictured) has been elected London’s new mayor, succeeding Conservative Boris Johnson, who served two terms. Khan served as a transport minister from 2009 to 2010 in the Labour Government. As LTT closed for press he was expected to name former Labour transport secretary Andrew Adonis as his deputy mayor for transport.

The Australian Prime Minister has claimed that private financing will allow investments necessary for "30-minute cities" where all residents can reach work within half-an-hour. Malcolm Turnbull released a 'Smart Cities' plan to cut commute times, a document that declares that once commutes average more than 90 minutes in total a day, most people will move or change job, the so-called "Marchetti's constant" observation. An infrastructure financing unit will be established to develop innovative f

Goldsmith backs bikes The expansion of public transport and the reduction of air pollution caused by road transport are key pledges in the manifesto of the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, Zac Goldsmith. “I will improve the capacity and reliability of London’s transport system by ensuring the Night Tube goes ahead, starting Crossrail 2 and growing the rail network, as well as bringing suburban rail services under the Mayor’s control,” says Goldsmith’s m

It’s tempting to depict the debate about bus franchising as a struggle between local government and bus operators. The reality, however, is a little more nuanced. The Government’s promise of  franchising powers has excited some in local government more than others – with most of the early interest coming from city-regions. And, although incumbent bus operators are likely to fight franchising all the way, competitive tenders open the door for new market entrants.   RA

“We have the most expensive public transport system in the world – and it’s embarrassing how inefficient we are at improving infrastructure,” columnist Charlotte Gill said in The Independent on 17 March. “They say Rome wasn’t built in a day and, bloody hell – neither was Tufnell Park tube station. “You’re probably thinking that you don’t really care about Tufnell Park tube station,” she said. “And I get it, but I’m us

A recent @Transportxtra Tweet asked: “Is this what a place needs to be like for #smartertravel?” The tweet referred to a map of a small area of Hackney that benefits from a series of road closures which, along with parking controls and self-enforcing 20mph zones, means through traffic is excluded, making it a great place to cycle, walk and play. To quote Meg Hillier MP Hackney South and Shoreditch, in the Parliamentary cycling debate of 16 October 2014: “...it is possible to c

The Conservatives' candidate for the Mayor of London would back a new road tunnel in the east of the capital, while saying he, "as a rule, back[s] public transport, cycling and walking over costly new road space". Zac Goldsmith, an environmental campaigner, declares in his transport manifesto that "costly new road space...carries far less people and adds to air pollution." But he adds: "However, it is clear that the lack of river crossings in east London is driving up costs for builders and sma

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has written to Boris Johnson setting out the detail of Transport for London’s funding settlement for the next five years. The letter comes as TfL this week published a new business plan, outlining how it plans to cope with the spending settlement, which will see its resource grant from Government slashed from £447m in 2016/17 to zero in 2018/19.   London transport commissioner Mike Brown told the TfL board this week that the abolition of

Former Midland Metro trams could replace the ageing  former London Underground trains used on the Island Line on the Isle of Wight. The idea of converting the line between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin into a tram operation has been recommended by former rail industry executive Christopher Garnett in a report on the railway’s future for Isle of Wight Council.  The 8.5-mile line is part of Stagecoach’s South West Trains (SWT) franchise and carries more than a million passeng

The operation of the new Night Tube service will have to be robustly monitored to ensure crime and fear of crime does not threaten or deter people, especially women and minorities, advises the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee The

The Government is considering selling some or all of Network Rail’s 18 managed stations.  Responding to reports that US bank Citigroup – which specialises in divestments – had been brought in to advise on options, rail minister Claire Perry, said: “Network Rail is exploring new models for station management and ownership with the goal to bring improvements for both passengers and the communities they serve. They have engaged Citigroup as advisors to consider a range

An unprecedented transfer of transport powers from a county to a neighbouring combined authority was expected to be approved by councillors as LTT closed for press this week.   Councillors on Chesterfield Borough Council, which lies within Derbyshire County Council’s area, were expected to approve plans to become a full member of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority. The decision, which will have to be endorsed by the Secretary of State for communities and local government, w

Picture the scene: Six livewire transport personalities, hungry for funding, with an appetite for smart ideas and willing to do anything to get their hands on the lion’s share of the ‘Totally Smarter Transport Fund (TSTF)’ – in the wilds of… Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes, wild? (Cue jungle drums). More funding you didn’t know was available? (Cue louder drums?). Okay, it’s a virtual pot of money available for one day only (18 March) at Smarter Travel LIV

Innovate UK is to invest £260,000 in developing an app which will help disabled rail passengers obtain real-time assistance during their journey. SMART (Spontaneous Mobile Accessible Rail Travel) is an 18 month project which will provide a demonstrator and pilot trial for a means of enabling disabled persons to request assistance when travelling by train. Current practices mean that assistance needs to be booked 24 hours in advance, reducing flexibility in travel planning as well as caus

The European Union fund to complete a trans-European transport network has received proposals worth almost twice the available budget €12.96 billion, including over €500m for the route linking the U.K with the Mediterranean. More than 400 bids were placed by last week's deadline for the €7.6bn available for the latest calls for bids from the €22.4 billion allocated for grants for the TEN-T projects in the EU Member States in the period from 2014 to 2020. This inclu

New powers allowing the Government to establish sub-national transport bodies (STBs) in England have received Royal Assent. The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act allows the Secretary of State for transport to create statutory STBs outside Greater London. They would prepare a transport strategy, provide advice to the Secretary of State on transport in the area, and co-ordinate transport functions of constituent authorities. An STB could also apply to the Secretary of State for transport

The West Midlands could become the first place in the UK to introduce battery-powered trams on short sections of track, eliminating the need to install overhead wires in environmentally sensitive locations, or where  installation would be costly. Spanish tram manufacturer CAF, which recently supplied 21 vehicles for the Midland Metro network, has identified four sections of proposed network extensions where trams could operate with batteries (see map):  • The whole of the Birmin

A new design of train – dubbed a ‘very light rail vehicle’ – has been unveiled by two Warwickshire businesses, who hope it will find applications in the UK.  The vehicle has been developed by Transport Design International (TDI) and Severn Lamb Transportation. It is an 18-metre long, bi-directional diesel-electric railcar with capacity for 120 passengers (66 seated), and a top speed of 65kmph.  The vehicle is to be shipped to Turkey for use on the private rail

Council leaders in the West Midlands conurbation have approved a new transport plan.  Movement for Growth is touted as a 20-year plan covering the seven metropolitan district councils, who will soon establish a combined authority overseeing transport. The plan will complement the Midlands Connect transport strategy covering a larger area and focusing on national/regional transport connections. The conurbation plan approved by West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority includes a proposa

A London-style pay-as-you-go smartcard for public transport travel has been launched in Greater Nottingham.    The ITSO-compliant Robin Hood card features an e-purse and gives passengers the best fare on the day trips are made.  The card is accepted by operators who provide 95% of services in the Greater Nottingham area: Nottingham City Transport, Trentbarton, Kinchbus, the city council’s Linkbus network, and Nottingham Express Transit (the tram). The card should be extend

Trams returned to the streets of Birmingham city centre this week after a break of more than 60 years, with the opening of the first phase of a £128m Midland Metro city centre extension. Trams are running from Snow Hill to Bull Street, the first part of the extension to New Street railway station. Work has also begun extending the route on to Centenary Square, which is due to be completed in 2019.

Low paid workers in the capital are being are disproportionately affected by rising transport costs, according to a new report. The report – Living on the Edge – was commissioned by London Councils, London TravelWatch and Trust for London. It states that while people on a low wage are excluded from central London due to the high cost of housing they commute to low-paid cleaning jobs and manual work in hotels and offices located in Zone 1. One in five London workers, equaling 1

Paul Withrington uses the word flow when he means volume (Letters LTT 13 Nov). The flow of passengers travelling between stops depends on the numbers boarding at previous stops less those alighting, per unit of time, not on the distance between the stops.  By analogy, the DfT calculates annual average daily flows (AADFs) to measure traffic flow on the highway network – that’s the average number of vehicles per year divided by 365 at count points at specified junctions on the ro

The UK’s first tram-train vehicle should arrive in the country this week for eventual use in a two-year trial of the technology between Sheffield and Rotherham. The 37-metre long vehicle, designated a Class 399, has been outshopped from Vossloh’s works in Valencia, Spain, and is due to arrive at Southampton Docks on 28 November. It will then be transported by road to South Yorkshire, where it should arrive on 1 December.  Seven vehicles are on order for the Supertram network i

A lot of people in public transport still sadly remain wedded to a vision comprising a number of separate modes. The one they are concerned with themselves is the important one, of course- be it bus, rail or tram for example - and the rest have their acknowledged, but inferior, little world - with even a space maybe reserved in the mobility mix for active travel on foot or by bike. But seek to join them up as a seamless boundary-less offer, and entrenched attitudes and prejudices quickly kick in

Background As the incoming BRT UK Chair, I have been asked to share my thoughts around what I see to be the future of Bus Rapid Transit in the UK. I will start however, by going back in time a little. Since my early days in transport consultancy (going back some time), I was involved in a number of bus priority studies in London and Liverpool through which it was clear to me that enormous benefits to passengers could be derived. Then, at some point in the mid 90’s I stumbled upon the con

The Government has announced the members of its new National Infrastructure Commission, which will initially focus on three priorities: Northern Connectivity, especially east-west connectivity across the Pennines; London’s transport system and the need for large-scale transport improvements on road, rail and Underground, including Crossrail 2; and energy. The commission is chaired by former Labour transport secretary Lord Adonis. Commissioners are: former Conservative deputy prime minister

Here are a couple of questions for you, which appear at the start of my book Urban Transport Without the Hot Air: What happened to the UK duty on petrol between 2000 and 2012?  What proportion of Manchester’s commuters travel by tram?  Put aside the idea of a trick question and try to guess if you don’t already know. Do the answers ‘1) it fell by 16%’ and ‘2) 1.4%’ surprise you? If so, you are not alone. Like many other aspects of huma

Mike Brown has been named as London’s new transport commissioner. Brown has been interim commissioner since July, following Sir Peter Hendy’s appointment as chairman of Network Rail. He was previously TfL’s managing director of London Underground & Rail. As commissioner Brown will receive a salary of £355,944, the same as the previous commissioner, in 2015/16. He is also eligible for a performance award each year of up to 50 per cent of his salary. The performance awa

The House of Commons Transport Select Committee has launched an inquiry into surface transport at airports. The inquiry will examine whether strategic connections to airports fulfil current and future requirements in terms of range and capacity. The committee says it is interested to assess the effectiveness of the government's approach to planning surface access to airports, as well as understanding whether the governme

You are fully justified in saying that “the chief advocates of ultra-light rail, many of whom are now getting on in years, have little to show for all their enthusiastic effort” (‘Any takers for ultra-light rail?’ LTT 10 Jul). However, as one of those advocates, may I implore your readers not to take this as indicating the lack of a market for Ultra Light Rail (ULR)?  In my view, ULR would be flourishing all over the world by now if we had succeeded in getting even

Nottingham’s light rail network has more than doubled in size with the opening of two  extensions.  The new routes of the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) system serve the south-west and south of the city respectively. The south-west line runs via Chilwell to terminate at a 1,300-space park-and-ride site at Toton Lane, near junction 25 of the M1. The southern route runs through Clifton, terminating at a park-and-ride site with more than 1,000 spaces at Clifton South, close to ju

Local government funding cuts are one of the driving forces behind Transport for Greater Manchester’s interest in bus franchising, a senior TfGM official has told councillors.  Simon Warburton, TfGM’s head of policy and strategy, explained some of the key challenges facing the organisation at a meeting of Stockport Council’s environment and economy scrutiny committee.  “There’s no doubt that there is a significant challenge that we in addition to all oth

On 3 August Western Mail business columnist Steve Howell made an impassioned, not to say lengthy, plea on the Wales Online website for trams to be introduced to the transport network of south-east Wales. “Not so long ago the term Metro was almost always associated exclusively with the underground system in Paris,” Howell observed. “These days the word is synonymous with light rail – or trams to most of us… and in Wales we have a unique opportunity to start catching

Centro plans to appoint a single contractor and designer to deliver extensions to the Midland Metro light rail network over a ten-year period.  The original Wolverhampton-Birmingham Snow Hill line of Midland Metro is currently being extended across Birmingham city centre to New Street station and Centro says funding is in place to deliver the following extensions:  Pinfold Street (near New Street) to Centenary Square in Birmingham city centre Wolverhampton city centre 

Lucy Saunders (pictured), a public health specialist at Transport for London, has received the Transport Planner of the Year award for her work on TfL’s transport and health action plan. The award, sponsored by the Transport Planning Society, was presented at this month’s Transport Practitioners Meeting. The PTRC Lifetime Achievement award was made to Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London. 

Your comment column on ultra-light rail in the last issue ends by asking what is the potential market size for the technology in the UK (‘Any takers for ultra-light rail?’ LTT 10 Jul). Many in the rail industry do not perceive any need to spread the coverage of the rail network or assist with the first mile of customers’ daily journeys from home to destinations. What’s wrong with buses? they ask. But while the volume of passenger journeys to work by rail is rising, outsi

Chatting with John Parry about his Parry People Mover (PPM) lightweight railcars is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. He’s warm, articulate, and brimming with enthusiasm for his invention. Yet there must be a bit of steel in Parry too because he’s had to fight a few battles over the years. As a Colonial Service officer stationed in North Borneo in the early 1960s, Parry trained and led an army of irregulars to fight an insurgency, and was honoured with an MBE for gallantry. More

Continued from part 1.... The Very Light Rail project The Revolution Very Light Rail (VLR) project is meanwhile gathering pace. “The main objective of the project is to reduce the weight and cost of a railcar by half in order to facilitate the low-cost connectivity of suburban and rural areas,” WMG explains.  The consortium has the £1.6m from the Future Rail programme and consortium members are also making contributions. The WMG says the project budget is about £4

The City of Edinburgh Council is exploring how to raise funds to extend its tram line into the north of the city.  The city’s first tram line opened last May, connecting Edinburgh Airport and York Place in the city centre, a distance of about 8.7 miles. The line carried about five million passengers in the first year. The council says forecasts for 2027 suggest the line will carry ten million without any extensions.   The original plan had been to build a longer route but escal

The Midlands Metro, Sheffield Supertram and Blackpool Tramway all suffered a decline in passengers in the last financial year, according to official statistics. Across England passenger miles on light rail systems rose to a record high for recent times in 2014/15, to 239.8m, with particularly big surges in numbers using the Docklands Light Railway and the Tyne and Wear Metro. There were smaller increases for the Manchester Metrolink, Nottingham Express Transit and the London Tramlink - still be

The inquiry team investigating the ill-fated Edinburgh Tram project has invited public submissions on the key issues under consideration. The city’s first tram line between the city centre and the airport opened last May. The Scottish Government has set up an inquiry, led by Lord Hardie, to understand why the project was delivered three years late and suffered a massive cost overrun, forcing the route to be truncated.  The inquiry team is sifting through around five million document

A passenger railway branch line in Hertfordshire could be converted into a busway or light railway under plans to improve east-west orbital public transport links between towns in the county.  The Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey railway could become a key link in a new east-west orbital rapid transit  network, which is proposed in Hertfordshire County Council’s new draft rail strategy, drawn up with the assistance of consultant Arup. Hertfordshire describes the railway &nda

The Chancellor today signalled backing for HS3, pledged to protect capital spending despite a further fiscal squeeze, and announced new transport devolution deals. Osborne said in the Budget 2015 that in the next Parliament despite further deficit-reduction he would want public sector gross investment to be held at the same rate in 2016/17 and 2017/18 in real terms as in 2015/16, and then would want it to grow in line with GDP from 2018/19 onwards.  He welcomed the soon-to-be-pu

The way Transport for London (TfL) deals with customer complaints is in need of an urgent re-think, states a review by the London Assembly Transport Committee. The emergence of contactless payment, along with ticket office closures, social media and new regulatory requirements means TfL’s relationship with its customers must change, says the committee. “Passengers need to know what standards of service they can expect, how to complain when things go wrong, when their complaint will

The North East Combined Authority (NECA) is reviewing how Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, is governed. The PTE, established by the 1968 Transport Act, is responsible for the provision and procurement of passenger transport services. It is a public body in its own right and originally received its political steer from the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority and then, from 2008, the Integrated Transport Authority.  The ITA was abolished last year on the forma

The London Borough of Hounslow is investigating converting a freight-only railway in west London into a Docklands Light Railway-type operation to improve access to a major employment area. The Brentford goods branch runs from Southall on the Great Western Main Line to aggregate and waste terminals in Brentford. The idea of converting it into a passenger link features in Hounslow’s plans for the Great West Corridor, focused on the so-called ‘Golden Mile’ of the A4 Great West Ro

John Davies is one of many British Rail managers who left the industry in the 1990s. He left despite – or perhaps because of – his actions that reversed the fortunes of Welsh rail services. BR was preparing to close some lines in the South Wales valleys in the 1980s, but Davies went native. Exploiting his position as BR’s provincial services manager for South Wales, he reduced fares to make them affordable to a population suffering a long decline in industrial employment. This

The new rapid transit study for the West Midlands conurbation will study lower cost alternatives to light rail. The West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority announced proposals for a study of rapid transit connections between the Black Country and Birmingham last month (LTT 23 Jan). The background to the study is revealed in a letter sent in December by ABCA – the Association of Black Country Authorities (comprising Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton) – to Roger Lawren

The possible shape of a Metrolink light rail network for the south of Greater Manchester has been outlined in a report commissioned by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council.     Four routes focused on Stockport town centre are identified in the report by consultant Atkins. Stockport’s top priority is to convert the Manchester Piccadilly to Marple railway to tram-train operation. A branch could serve Stockport town centre utilising the Stockport-Stalybridge railway line, which

When Nottingham’s workplace parking levy (WPL) was launched in April 2012 it had a good many detractors among the city’s business community. Firms complained that the scheme would erode their profit margins and Nottingham’s biggest company, Boots, threatened to move its 3,000 parking spaces outside the city boundary to avoid paying the levy. But, more than two years on, most of the misgivings about the scheme appear to have subsided. And, importantly, the WPL is fulfilling its

The Conservatives are pledging new laws to make strikes by transport workers harder by requiring at least 40 per cent of union members to vote in strike ballots. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin told the BBC that a planned London bus strike on Tuesday 13 January was "ridiculous" because it had only been voted for by 16% of people eligible to take part in the ballot.  "A strike in the public sector affects many people who have no chance and exercise no authority over that strike what

A rolling stock engineering firm says it has reached agreement with Transport for London to purchase surplus District Line trains, with the intention of converting them to diesel power so they can replace ageing and unpopular Pacer and Sprinter units running on many provincial lines in Britain, writes John W E Helm.  Vivarail Ltd says the trains will provide a low-cost alternative to building new stock (LTT 25 Jul). The District Line sets date from 1978: Vivarail will utilise their alumini

Oyster-style smart ticketing on all local bus services should be delivered in Sheffield, in a city deal announced by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and a Liberal Democrat MP in the city.  Some of the transport aspects of the deal are vague, and some observers have also pointed out that the pledges are notably weaker than the recent devolution announcement for Greater Manchester. The Sheffield press release lists four transport components: • the “opportunity for the city

For the measures supported by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) to have lasting impact, they need to be set in a strategic context. Smarter Travel initiatives must run with the grain of local policy. The central question is: What kind of a place do we want to be? What are the options? One possibility is the ‘big city’ model. A successful city has two characteristics; its population is growing – people are attracted by success to live, work or study – and the po

The Government is to fund the development of a business case for Crossrail 2, the proposed new rail line across central London, connecting lines in the south-west with north-east.  The Chancellor’s pledge comes as a study for TfL by consultant PwC put a £27.5bn cost on the project (2014/15 prices) and suggested the Government may have to fund at least half of it.  “I want a serious analysis of potential costs and timescales, to be ready ahead of the spending review

I start with apologies to anyone anticipating a piece entitled ‘Nothing works without walking’. I promised this last month, but this will now be my New Year message. I go on to apologise to Peter Benchley for misusing a famous quote from ‘Jaws’ as my title. This month’s thoughts were prompted by several headlines I’ve read in recent weeks that focus on some very big numbers; and by the fact of it occurring to me that there’s often an inverse relationshi

Tram passengers in London could be charged a premium over bus travel in order to fund further investment in the network.  Unveiling a 15-year strategy for Tramlink this week, Gareth Powell, TfL’s director of strategy and service development for London Underground and London Rail, said: “Investing in the network will allow more demand to be accommodated and revenue to be generated but requires upfront funding. Tram fares are currently the same as bus fares with a relatively low

Transport for London wants Network Rail to shift more freight off the North London Line to improve performance of London Overground services.  “Freight delays are more emotive for us than perhaps the numbers suggest,” Jon Fox, TfL’s director of rail, told the London Assembly’s budget committee. Statistics suggest freight trains account for 2% of delays to Overground services, but Fox said: “When it does happen, like last Friday on the West London Line –

One of Birmingham’s biggest pieces of 1960s road infrastructure could be demolished under plans unveiled by the city council this week.  The A38 connects the Aston Expressway in north-east Birmingham with the Bristol Road in the south-west of the city, skirting the city centre in tunnels and open stretches of road.  The city council says the road is a “significant barrier to movement and inhibitor to development in the city centre”. Lengthy maintenance closures of

Laura Shoaf (pictured) has been appointed strategic director of transport by the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, which brings together the leaders of the seven Metropolitan districts. Shoaf is currently director of transport for the Black Country, which covers four of the seven districts. The seven districts are considering establishing a Combined Authority.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has unveiled a new fare structure aimed at giving a better deal to part-time workers, making up a fifth of the capital's workforce. Whilst he

As a £400m new tram line in Manchester serves its first passengers today, Transport for Greater Manchester says the opening 12 months ahead of schedule shows "the power of what you can do on a local basis." TfGM's chief executive Jon Lamonte made the comments as the Chancellor announced a new mayor for Greater Manchester would get powers to deliver further Metrolink extensions. Lamonte hailed the 'Earn Back' scheme to build the new line to Manchester Airport in an interview with The

Transport for London and Network Rail have identified a preferred route alignment for Crossrail 2, the project to connect the railways of south-west and north-east London. TfL and NR envisage Crossrail 2 being a regional railway, connecting lines in Surrey with Hertfordshire. The core of the project would be a new line  linking Wimbledon with Dalston Junction. Intermediate stations are proposed at Tooting Broadway, Clapham Junction, King’s Road Chelsea, Victoria, Tottenham Court Road

Transport for London’s plan to build a new Thames road crossing at Gallions Reach in east London has been boosted by the London Borough of Bexley’s announcement that it does not oppose the scheme. Bexley was a fierce opponent of the Thames Gateway bridge project at Gallions Reach promoted by Ken Livingstone when he was London’s mayor. Boris Johnson, under pressure from Bexley’s Tory administration, subsequently scrapped the crossing in 2008.  TfL announced this mon

THE REPORT advocating an ‘HS3’ high-speed rail network in the north of England (p3) was given a huge amount of coverage in the media towards the end of October, despite the fact that, as the BBC’s transport correspondent, Richard Westcott, pointed out: “The announcement is a long way shy of any solid commitment to speed up trains across the Pennines. “The Government has just asked for some possible routes and prices,” Westcott also observed. “A cynic mi

Two decades ago the railways were privatised. However, unlike other important milestones in rail history, this event was not marked by a one-off ‘big bang’ – there was no overnight transformation from an old order to a newer one – as was the case with the 1948 nationalisation of the railways or the 1923 grouping of the railways into four major companies. Instead, rail privatisation was characterised by a steady succession of smaller bangs of varying sizes, which were spre

ON 21 SEPTEMBER, Peter Hendy, commissioner of Transport for London, used an interview in The Guardian to warn of London’s potential future transport problems in apocalyptic terms. “London could see riots again unless more trains and buses are provided at affordable fares for the poorest communities as the population soars,” the paper said, quoting Hendy. “He [Hendy] said low-paid workers now lived on the outskirts of the capital rather than in inner-city neighbourhoods, a

TfL said that a planned extension of London's Bakerloo line south of the river will need to be paid for by new development, as it launched a consultation on the scheme today. The consultation was launched after the London Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday at the Conservative conference hailed the start of work next year on the first extension of the tube for 25 years, to take the Northern Line to Battersea, as "the first time anyone has put together enough private finance to build a railway since t

Sir Peter Hendy, head of Transport for London, has told The Guardian that the capital could see riots again unless more trains and buses are provided at affordable fares for the poorest. Despite Crossrail and tube upgrades, Hendy was quoted as saying that a predicted 6m extra trips driven by a growing population and the fact that low-paid workers live on the outskirts of the capital rather than in inner-city areas were a recipe for "social unrest".  "London's poor don't live in Harrow Roa

Transport for London has announced that it is to extend its ‘Click and Collect’ service, where customers buying goods online can arrange to pick them up from secure lockers at designated Tube stops, to an additional 17 Tube stations. Over the last ten months TfL has been working with a number of major retailers to trial ‘Click and Collect’ services at 25 Tube station car parks and it says that the trial has been hugely successful, with over 10,000 orders being made since

Patronage figures and revenue levels for Edinburgh Trams are after 100 days of operation in line with the business model developed to justify the scheme, according to Transport for Edinburgh. The service experienced a busy launch period with around 130,000 passengers in the first week of operation followed by regular weekly average patronage in excess of 90,000, taking overall passenger numbers to date to over 1.5 million. Ian Craig, chief executive of Transport for Edinburgh, said: "I'm very p

Transport for Greater Manchester is to order up to 16 additional light rail vehicles for the Metrolink network.  TfGM, which has already ordered 104 vehicles in five batches from Bombardier and Vossloh Kiepe, says additional vehicles are needed to cope with peak demand on completion of the expanded network in 2017. The new vehicles will also ensure continuation of the existing temporary service pattern on the Media City line to Piccadilly, rather than terminating services at Cornbrook.&nbs

Many of the transport projects that Parsons Brinckerhoff works on make headline news – HS2, Manchester Metrolink and the M25 to name but three. But it’s unusual for the media spotlight to shine on the infrastructure consultancy itself. Since parent company Balfour Beatty announced PB was up for sale in May, however, there has been feverish speculation about who would buy a business that employs almost 14,000 people worldwide, 2,500 of them in the UK. Last month the sale process was t

The Greater London Authority’s new infrastructure plan to 2050 is a perfect illustration of how long-term spatial plans turn incremental annual changes to population and travel demand into much bigger, impressive-sounding numbers capable of focusing minds.  If you think London is already crowded then think again. The plan’s central forecast is for the capital’s population to rise by a whopping 37% between now and 2050, from just over eight million to 11.3 million, within

Passenger journeys on Tramlink in south London have more than doubled from 15 million to 31.2 million since the system opened in the summer of 2000, and numbers are projected to reach over 37 million before the decade is out. Passenger miles increased from 59.7 million to 100.9 million between 2000 and 2014, and passenger revenue rose by over 43% in real terms during the same period. Originally known as Croydon Tramlink, the network had something of a turbulent early history: its authorising ac

According to Shashi Verma, director of customer experience at TfL, in a few weeks the biggest change to public transport ticketing in London will take place. From mid-September travellers will be able to use their contactless debit or credit card to use the buses, the Tube, trams, DLR and Overground rail services. “Offering the option of contactless payments will make it easier and more convenient for customers to pay for their travel... and help them get on board without delay,” he

The London Mayor has set out the investment he thinks is needed in transport infrastructure up to 2050, including a tolled new inner ring road and increasing rail capacity to carry twice as many passengers. The ambitions are for the period beyond the Mayor's transport strategy that covers the decades to 2031, and range from the costed - a £2.6bn Bakerloo line extension to south-east London - to less worked-up ideas, such as a possible Crossrail 3 and new extensions to the London Overgroun

Two rival plans are being developed to solve rolling stock shortages in northern England using redundant London Underground rolling stock. Delegates at this month’s Connected North conference in Huddersfield heard speakers from Vivarail and The York Transport Company explain their competing plans to convert District Line ‘D’ stock to diesel traction. The stock is being phased out in the capital. The ‘D’ stock was built between 1978 and 1981 by Metro-Cammell in Bir

Automated technology will transform many, but not all, forms of public transport, believes Begg.  Train drivers will continue to be needed on the mixed traffic railway. “The problem is not technology: it is the line of sight and the massive distances trains need to identify and react to obstacles and come to a stop safely. “Radar-based adaptive cruise control systems fitted to most luxury cars these days could conceivably be adapted to trains but the massive time and distance

Ministers this week gave the go-ahead to hundreds of local transport schemes across England in growth deals struck with Local Enterprise Partnerships.  About £1.8bn of Local Growth Fund cash will be allocated to over 200 transport projects starting in 2015/16. Provisional funding of £1.3bn has been awarded to a further 120 schemes that could start from 2016/17 onwards.  Eye-catching public transport projects include: electrification of the railway to Hull; two extensions

Discussions of rail developments in the capital often focus on the mega projects such as the Thameslink upgrade, east-west Crossrail, and the proposed Crossrail 2, connecting lines in the south-west and north-east. But studies are also underway on how to improve rail access to south-east London, with no fewer than four types of rail-based scheme being explored: traditional heavy rail; Underground; Docklands Light Railway (DLR); and Tramlink.  Transport for London has been leading the studi

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have announced the first local projects agreed under the Local Growth Fund, to be spent from next year. The £6bn in allocations, including the whole of the £2bn available for 2015/16, include: A £50m transport package for Greater Manchester, including a revamp to the Metrolink system, as part of the biggest 2015/16 single allocation for a local enterprise partnership area of £170m and £477m in total to 2021; Fun

A Keolis and Amey joint venture has secured the franchise to operate and maintain the Docklands Light Railway in London for the next six and a half years. It will be the first time the franchise, which has been held by Serco since the DLR opened in 1997, has changed hands. Alistair Gordon, chief executive of Keolis UK, said the French company was the world's largest operator of light rail networks. Serco has placed its hopes on rail franchise wins after a fifth was wiped off the value of its s

Transport for Greater Manchester has launched a public consultation on extending the Metrolink light rail network to the huge Trafford Centre shopping mall. The line would branch off the Eccles line just after Ponoma station and serve five stops within the Trafford Park area before terminating near the Selfridges entrance to the Trafford Centre.  The route is a mainly off-street segregated alignment. Consultation runs until 26 September. TfGM will then submit a Transport and Works Act Ord

Two rail re-openings and three bus rapid transit schemes form the central plank of an ambitious plan to transform public transport in Bristol and throughout the surrounding area. The rail schemes, marketed under the MetroWest banner, are to be introduced in two phases in May 2019 and May 2021, and include re-opening the Portishead and Henbury lines to passenger traffic. They are flagship projects that will account for the bulk of the area’s local transport funding. Both bus and rail schem

Stagecoach has reported increased profits in 2013/14, with strong performances in its two UK bus business units but a slump in rail profits.  Preliminary results for the Stagecoach Group for the year ended 30 April 2014 show that group revenue grew 4.5% to £2.930bn (2013: £2.805bn). But group total operating profit, before intangible asset expenses and exceptional items, only increased 1.3% to £223.3m (2013: £220.7m). Strong cash generation resulted in a net debt f

Overground trains serving the Old Oak Common HS2 station, big changes to the construction plans for the Euston HS2 station, and a link between the West Coast Main Line and east-west Crossrail all feature in Transport for London’s petition against the Hybrid Bill for the London-West Midlands high-speed railway.  TfL wants Overground trains to serve the proposed Old Oak Common station, which will have six sub-surface platforms for high-speed services and eight platforms for Crossrail a

Media coverage of the opening of Edinburgh’s new tram line was not, on the whole, terribly positive. The Financial Times, for example, on 30 May, observed that the new tram was “years late, hundreds of millions of pounds over-budget and half as long as planned”. The BBC, similarly, noted that: “In the decade since the first money was allocated to the project, the price has doubled, the network has halved and it has taken twice as long to build as was first thought”

Edinburgh’s express bus service to the airport should be cheaper and quicker than the city’s new £776m tram line that opens this weekend.   Fares on the 14km (nine mile) tram line are harmonised with  the bus fares of municipally-owned Lothian Buses except for journeys to/from the airport. The single adult fare on Lothian Buses’ Airlink 100 bus  is £4 but the tram is £5. The bus service operates at least every ten minutes from 04.00 to midnigh

Transport for London is expected to select an operator for the Docklands Light Railway next week.  A decision is expected to be taken at TfL’s finance and policy committee on the 5 June. Serco currently holds the franchise, which covers the operations and most of the maintenance of the system.  The new seven-year franchise is due to start in September.  Procurement began in January 2013. Four bidders prequalified: Stagecoach; Keolis/Amey joint venture; Go-Ahead/Colas joi

London Underground will next month launch a new bridge-style ramp to close the gap between platforms and trains where traditional ramps could not be used because there is a gap and step down. LU has developed and trialled the design and gained approvals from the DfT and the Office of Rail Regulation and will introduce the ramps at Kilburn, Stanmore and Wembley Park, then further stations on the network later in the summer. The ramp is part of improvements that the Mayor and TfL hope will "embed

ON 6 May, The Edinburgh Evening News, which has long been a staunch critic of the delays and cost overruns that have become synonymous with Edinburgh’s tram scheme, was considerably more conciliatory in its coverage. Its front page lead story, for example, suggested that the section of line from the city centre to the foot of Leith Walk in north Edinburgh, which was mothballed to cut costs, could now be built due to a contribution from the developer of a major new shopping centre. “

Mobility has always been central to human existence. Looking back, we can identify three past eras of human mobility. Man as hunter-gatherer emerged out of Africa 60,000 years ago to explore and populate the whole of the inhabitable Earth, travelling some three or four thousand miles a year foraging for food. Next, with the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, our ancestors settled down, which limited travel to about an hour a day on average, an average travel time that persists today. At

Desmond Fletcher, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive’s director general between 1976 and 1983 has died, aged 88. During his time as DG, Fletcher oversaw the delivery of the 42-mile Tyne and Wear Metro system, which opened in 1980. He also oversaw the integration of PTE bus, Ferry and Metro and National Bus Company services to create what was widely regarded as the best integrated public transport network outside London, before bus deregulation in 1986. Rod Fletcher, son of D

Buses in Birmingham have a big image problem, according to focus group research for the city council. “A high number of participants, including both bus users and non-users, have very poor experiences and perceptions of bus services in Birmingham,” reports consultant WSP, which managed the consultation on the city’s draft Birmingham Mobility Action Plan (LTT 15 Nov 13). “Fear for personal safety is one of the key areas of dissatisfaction with, or deterrents to, using bu

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, has died aged 52. The union say that Crow died in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Crow had been general secretary of the RMT since 2002, having been elected to the role following the death of previous leader Jimmy Knapp. Normal 0 false fals

Railways and property have long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship: railway improvements can stimulate development in adjoining properties and boost land values, while rail-based property schemes usually put more traffic on the tracks. It’s a win-win situation for both parties. Last week’s ‘Rail Stations & Rail Property Summit’ in London, organised by Landor Links, brought together a wide range of key players in the rail and property sectors to discuss both on-going an

Birmingham City Council has published a vision for the area around the proposed Curzon Street HS2 terminus.  The Curzon HS2 Masterplan covers an area of 141 hectares and includes 366,000 square metres of office space, 98,000 square metres of retail, 167,000 square metres of residential accommodation (2,000 new homes), and 57,000 square metres of hotel accommodation.  Alongside the masterplan, Centro has launched a consultation on two options to extend  Midland Metro from Birming

There can’t be many civil servants who have gone on to lead revolutions. But David Metz hopes to be one. The DfT’s former chief scientist wants to overthrow the current way we appraise transport projects. Time savings for travellers are typically the biggest benefit of a transport scheme and, once given a monetised value, they help drive the benefit:cost ratio calculation. But Metz says time savings are transient and the major lasting benefit of transport investment is the uplift it

If Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (Metro) get their way, the trolleybus will be returning to the streets of Britain’s third largest city in 2020. Plans for a £250m, 8.9-mile north-south radial route linking the city centre with the outskirts are well advanced, in what is the only development of its kind currently contemplated in the UK. To date, the following progress has been made: the scheme received DfT programme entry status in July 2012,

In the last issue you report on cuts to public transport expenditure in South Yorkshire, Cumbria and Herefordshire, including the withdrawal of funding to supported bus services that are essential lifelines for many communities.  These are just the latest in a series of cuts to essential services across the country including Cornwall, Norfolk, Worcestershire and Tyne & Wear reported previously in LTT. These cuts will save tens of millions of pounds and have a severe impact on the commu

FirstGroup has proposed introducing a 'New Bus for Leeds' modelled on London's new double-deckers as a lower-cost alternative improvement to the planned trolleybus scheme. First has prepared a submission to the forthcoming public inquiry that it has shared with the regional paper Yorkshire Post. First said it could introduce up to 200 of the new buses, which would have multi-door entry and exit points designed to cut waiting times at bus stops. The vehicles would also have Oyster card-style ti

Transport for London and the DfT have selected Derby-based train manufacturer Bombardier as preferred bidder for the £1bn contract to build 65 trains for the capital’s east-west Crossrail scheme.  Bombardier beat-off competition from Spanish-based CAF, and Japan’s Hitachi, for the contract. Five bidders pre-qualified  but Alstom and Siemens withdrew during the competition.  Bombardier will supply, deliver and maintain 65 nine-coach trains, as well as construct

TfL is attacking union plans for two 48-hour strikes this week and next over ticket office closures, saying they are the result of "poorly-supported ballots" and that four-fifths of Londoners back proposals to take staff out of ticket offices. TfL is consulting over its proposals for 24-hour tube services and "making staff visible and available in public areas of tube stations". London Underground has committed to all stations remaining staffed when ticket offices are closed from 2015, and says

PUBLIC SPENDING on bus services in Greater Manchester and Tyne and Wear is under pressure after councils agreed tough levies for transport spending. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority is freezing the transport levy at £198m for 2014/15 and 2015/16. But the underlying levy will fall 3% in each year to allow the other portion of the levy, which funds the Greater Manchester Transport Fund programme of major transport infrastructure works, such as Metrolink extensions, to increase. Tr

London’s modal shift from private to public transport, cycling and walking continues apace, and is the main theme behind TfL’s annual Travel in London publication now in its sixth year. The 250-page document – which generally reflects the 2012 calendar year and the 2012/13 financial year – says that journey stages in the capital by private transport have declined from 46% in 1993 to 33% in 2012, whereas those made by public transport have increased from 30% to 44% during

Thanks to our Ukrainian correspondent for sending in this image of a tram timetable from the city of Krivoy Rog. In case you’re having difficulty understanding what it says, let us help you...The first tram on route 10 departs at 07.04 and then operates at 101-minute intervals until the last service at 20.36. Route 11 operates at the same intervals but routes 12, 16, and 19 have better frequencies, operating every 67 minutes, 76 minutes, and 52 minutes respectively. Now the exam question:

Infrastructure investment is recognised in the New Year's Honours list, with senior figures at Infrastructure UK, an infrastructure investment firm and London Underground all receiving honours. Orders of the British Empire go to Paul Skinner, chairman, Infrastructure UK, for "services to business and infrastructure"; Cressida Hogg, managing partner at 3i, which invests in transport, for "services to infrastructure investment and policy"; and to David Waboso, the director of capital programmes a

I was interested in your front page item about Lord Heseltine’s reference to the Docklands Light Railway as a “toy town railway” in his recent speech to the Royal Town Planning Institute. Whether or not his description of the DLR as an example of penny-pinching when it comes to long-term infrastructure provision is justified, some context is worth noting. At the early planning stages of regenerating London’s Docklands, Canary Wharf was to be a very low density affair. I

Lord Heseltine, who master-minded the regeneration of London’s Docklands in the 1980s, has described the Docklands Light Railway as a “toy town railway”. The former minister told the Royal Town Planning Institute that the system “fitted the penny-pinching approach that characterises so much of Britain’s attitude to long-term competitiveness and infrastructure”.

Transport for London is stepping up a travel demand management (TDM) programme to try and alter travel behaviours at the busiest times of day, during times of disruption to transport networks, and during major events.  Building on the experiences of using TDM techniques during last summer’s Olympics, TfL has established a Travel Demand Management board, whose membership includes the DfT, Network Rail and the Association of Train Operating Companies. The board is overseeing an emergin

Plans for tram-train network for Greater Manchester are to be progressed after an initial feasibility study identified the benefits of running specially-designed vehicles that can run on both streets and railway tracks. Councillors on Transport for Greater Manchester's capital projects and policy sub-committee backed the plans on Friday after hearing that the most economically viable candidate for the region's first tram-train line would be from Manchester to Marple via Bredbury, both in the bo

Ambitious plans to develop the public transport system in South East Wales have been presented in a report commissioned by the Welsh Government. Key features of the South East Metro proposal include high-frequency electric local rail services, more stations, new fixed track rail or tram routes, tram-train vehicles, and bus rapid transit.  The plans have been prepared by a team led by Cardiff-born businessman Mark Barry who runs consultancy MGBarryConsulting. Other team members were Capita

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has granted Transport for Greater Manchester the power to build a second Metrolink route across Manchester city centre. The route is vital for delivering additional capacity on the system as the network expands. It runs from St Peter’s Square, along Princess Street, Cross Street and Corporation Street, rejoining the existing Metrolink line just outside Victoria station. Transport for Greater Manchester is currently procuring a contractor to undertake

Nexus is drawing up plans for a major expansion of the Tyne and Wear Metro network.  Seven corridors have been identified based on technical feasibility and demand forecasts. The PTE is currently into year four of an 11-year £389m renewal programme of the existing Metro network, the majority of which opened in the 1970s.  The Metrocars are undergoing a three-quarter life refurbishment but Nexus believes they will need replacement in the next decade and is reviewing what the ro

Plans for an orbital rail route round Greater London are being developed by local authorities in the South East and by Transport for London.  Surrey County Council raises the idea in its new rail strategy drawn up by consultant Arup. It suggests establishing a rail link between Gatwick Airport and Bedford via Reading, Didcot, Oxford and Milton Keynes (see map).  The plan would involve upgrading the North Downs Line between Gatwick and Reading via Guildford. Services would then contin

Transport for London has introduced a revolutionary new procurement process for its planned upgrade of the hugely complex Bank-Monument interchange. Under the old system, the winner would have taken all, but TfL has come up with a new method for retaining some of the money-saving ideas from the losing bidders. If their ideas are adopted, they will get a half-share of the savings. The process is called Innovative Contractor Engagement (ICE), and its implementation is likely to be closely followe

Edinburgh’s TRAMS are expected to take longer than the bus to travel from the city’s airport to the city centre. Municipally-owned Lothian Buses advertises its Edinburgh Airport bus service 100 as offering a journey time of 30 minutes to the city centre. Meanwhile,  modelling of the tram route by consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff suggests that a fully laden tram could complete the journey in 32-33 minutes. The airport service will continue to operate after the £776m tram ro

Much is known about the relative costs of building and operating BRT and LRT, and some of this evidence has been published before by BRTuk; by and large BRT is cheaper to build and to operate than LRT.  However less is known about how passengers perceive the two systems, and whether they see one as superior to the other. This issue often arises in discussion with cities here and abroad that are considering whether to invest in one of the two systems. Typically they would like to build LRT

The Centre for London think-tank has suggested that the Mayor of London focus more on encouraging behaviour change in order to reduce the estimated £60bn cost of accommodating two million extra people on the transport network. London’s population is projected to grow to 10 million by 2030, which TfL predicts will mean 30m trips per day by that year compared to 25.5m in 2011. The Centre for London says the current strategy from City Hall is to accommodate the capital’s growing

More than a tenth was shaved off the value of shares in Serco after it confirmed it was handing money back to Whitehall following misreporting of its contract delivery. The support services firm holding the London Docklands Light Railway, West London Parking alliance and Barclays Cyclehire phase three contracts said it will return £2m in profit it made from the prisoner escorting contract and forego any future profit from the deal. The company said that it would co-operate fully with a w

The City of Edinburgh Council is to create a body to integrate tram and bus services that could become responsible for pedestrian and cycling schemes. The council-owned Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams would report to the new body Transport for Edinburgh, which would oversee ticket integration and be responsible for the overall financial position. The 15-year financial model predicts a combined profit of £3.7m over the period with an operating surplus by the fourth year of operations. T

Transport for London had  another record year in 2012/13 according to the recently published annual report & accounts, which show traffic levels on the up with Underground journeys exceeding 1.2 billion for the first time. Only bus journey numbers bucked the upward trend (and then only slightly). However, TfL’s debt levels are also up. Long-term borrowings shot up 29.3% to £6.4bn (2011/12, £4.9bn), and have more than doubled in the last five years (2008/09, £3.0

ON 25 MAY tens of thousands of Germans descended on north-west London to watch the 2013 Champions’ League final at Wembley Stadium. And the man charged with the transport planning for such a major movement of people was Roy McGowan, director at Momentum Transport Planning. McGowan has worked with Wembley Stadium for the past 15 years, and two of his colleagues at Momentum had worked on the 2011 Champions’ League final, which was also held at Wembley, and this extensive experience was

The DfT has scrapped a plan to convert the 6.5-mile Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey railway to light rail operation.  In 2010 the Department consulted on plans to transfer responsibility for the line to Hertfordshire County Council, which would then award a 15-year contract for converting the line, procuring trams and operating the service (LTT 8 Jan 10). Four bidders were subsequently shortlisted for the project. But the DfT has now informed Hertfordshire that the project will no lo

Two options for a second Crossrail route in London, linking the south-west and north-east, have been published for consultation by Transport for London and Network Rail. A route for Crossrail 2, formerly known as the Chelsea-Hackney line, has been safeguarded since 1991. But TfL is now reviewing the route and has proposed two alternatives that it says could better meet the needs of the capital: a Metro option offering a high frequency underground service between Wimbledon and Alex

Sydney is Australia’s largest and most densely populated city, with a population of 4.6 million. The city’s central business district (CBD) covers an area of approximately 2 square miles, is bounded on two sides by water and contains 32 million square metres of floor space. More than 180,000 people live in the city of Sydney, sharing the space with about 20,000 businesses. Every day approximately 400,000 people arrive to work in this area, and another 500,000 travel to the city for s

Ben Still (pictured) has been appointed interim director general of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive following the departure of David Brown to Merseytravel (LTT 11 Mar). David Young, SYPTE’s director of customer experience, will serve as interim deputy director general. The arrangements are expected to operate for about 11 months until details of the planned Combined Authority are finalised. Still will retain his position as chief executive of the Sheffield City Region. He was

Metrolink services will be extended to south Manchester next week when the 2.7-mile East Didsbury extension opens several months ahead of schedule. Services will operate every 12 minutes during the daytime seven days a week, and every 15 minutes at other times. An off-peak return between East Didsbury and Manchester city centre will cost £3.80. The Metrolink network is now 45.6 miles long; further extensions are currently under construction to Ashton (opening winter 2013/14); Oldham an

Lutz Bertling will take over as President and Chief Operating Officer of Berlin-based Bombardier Transportation in June. Prior to joining Bombardier, Bertling was President and Chief Executive of Eurocopter Group, a subsidiary of EADS. He will replace André Navarri, who will remain as Strategic Advisor to the President and Chief Executive Officer of Bombardier Inc  Pierre Beaudoin until he retires in 2014.  

New Chairman and Chief Executive of Veolia Transdev Jean-Marc Janaillac has made a series of changes following the project for Caisse des Dépôts to increase its holding and Veolia Environment to scale down its stake. Janaillac has replaced both Jérôme Gallot as Chief Executive and Antoine Frérot as Chairman. Frérot remains a director, as does Antoine Gosset-Grainville on behalf of Caisse des Dépôts, a French state-owned investment bank. Janai

In the changes following the moves of Howard Smith and Howard Collins, Director of Strategy and Service Development Gareth Powell  (pictured) will take overall responsibility for London Rail, alongside his existing responsibilities. Jonathan Fox will be the Acting Director of London Rail and report to Powell.  Rory O’Neill will become the Acting Director of the DLR, and along with Danny Price, Head of the Emirates Airline cable car and Sharon Thompson, the Director of Tramlink,

Kassel is a German city of 200,000 people, lying 150 kilometres north of Frankfurt and just over an hour away on the high-speed Deutsche Bahn ICE train from Frankfurt Airport station. In a league table of German cities ranked by economic development, conducted by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research and published in the magazine Wirtschaftswoche (Economic Weekly), Kassel has emerged as the most dynamic place in the entire country. That means not the top-performing city – more predi

According to National Rail’s Journey Planner, a simple trip in the Greater London area from Watford Junction to Woking requires two mainline trains and an Underground ride. First, there is a Midland Mainline (or London Overground)train to London Euston, followed by a transfer to London Underground’s Northern Line to Waterloo, followed by a second transfer at Waterloo to a Southwest Trains service to Woking. This journey requires coordinating three train schedules, passing through up

Delivering major city rail schemes is so expensive, complicated and integral to city economies that it is hard to believe that a purely private sector approach to finance could ever deliver them, even in an era of shrinking public sector activity. But it will be a new generation of public sector development bodies, with new powers and financial models that will generally drive them forward. Some examples of the new approaches are beginning to emerge. The massive Grand Paris Express project 

D espite having historically one of the most comprehensive of the world’s urban and commuter rail systems, London has been playing catch up to Paris, and indeed other cities with S-Bahn-type railways, on its rail network development. While Paris has a mature cross city rail network in the form of its five RER lines, and is now moving on to developing its Grand Paris Express network of orbital super metro lines, London is trying to do both at once, and coming from a long way behind. Thames

Though Paris and London have attracted attention by developing their regional heavy rail networks to supplement existing tube/metro lines through new cross-city tunnels, they are not the only cities who have taken their city railways beyond the traditional model of large stations at surface level. Elsewhere in Europe Vienna is replacing its South terminal station with a new central Hauptbahnhof station which will link together the routes which converge on Vienna, including international servic

Plans for strategic rail network development in London and Paris tell a tale of two cities facing similar challenges. Both have realised that radial rail transport terminating at central locations means massive numbers of passengers overloading local distributor networks of buses or existing underground metros. And both have realised that many travellers are actually trying to get from one side of the city to the other, and don’t want to change between trains which terminate in the city ce

The majority of the world’s population now live in urban areas. That point was reached in 2008, according to official UN statistics, as the continuing migration from the countryside and population growth within metropolitan areas have combined to  change the way the majority of the world’s citizens live. 3.3 billion of us now live in urban areas. In 1950 there was just one city of over 10m people – New York. Now there are 27, and experts believe that by the end of 2015, t

Engineering consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff has appointed Tony Kearns as strategy and operations director for its UK Rail, Transit and Aviation business. Previously he served in business development and operational management roles for another major consultancy in the UK and internationally. In his new role Kearns will be leading the development of Parsons Brinckerhoff’s UK electrification business.

Transport for London will apply next month for powers to build and operate the Northern Line Tube extension to Battersea. Assuming the planning process runs smoothly, TfL says Charing Cross branch trains that currently terminate at Kennington would be running to  Battersea by December 2019. Sixteen trains an hour are envisaged. The estimated cost of the project is £868m in today’s prices or £998m in outturn prices. The project budget includes the purchase of five additi

The City of Edinburgh Council is to consult on major changes to city centre traffic management to complement the city’s first tram line that is due to open next summer. Under the plans, eastbound bus traffic would be moved from Princes Street onto parallel George Street. Westbound buses, taxis, and cyclists would continue to use the south side of Princes Street that borders Princes Street Gardens. With no eastbound traffic on Princes Street, the pavements on the north (shops) side of th

London’s transport commissioner Peter Hendy has been knighted for services to transport and the community in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours. He successfully delivered the transport services for last year’s Olympic and Paralympic games. ...as Collins off to Sydney Howard Collins, London Underground’s chief operating officer, who has received an OBE for services to the London 2012 Games, is leaving to join the newly created Sydney Trains in Australia, as chief execu

What is claimed to be the world’s first fully mobile and wireless information display system is now being offered as a innovative new communications solution to transport operators, replacing printed posters and white boards Developed by Met Systems who have managed the design, supply and installation of ESUB’s (Electronic Service Update Boards) across the London Underground network, WiSI is the future of standardised on-station communications claims the company. Created to direct

Any rail journey involving interchange across London is potentially a problem to explain to travellers. It is likely that business is lost to rail because users are baffled by proposed journey times that are longer than they often are in reality, and because the convenience of a high-frequency service is undersold by giving specific connecting times when they are not needed. It is amongst the unaddressed issues on the National Rail website. Generous margins may protect the train companies from

A number of European cities have significance and development activity which means that their leaders are key European transport figures in their own right. London and Paris are two such cities whose chiefs appear earlier in our listing.  Mayor Boris Johnson and Transport for London’s commissioner Peter Hendy have forged a successful partnership between elected politician and public servant that has delivered a generally well regarded , system though relations between  Pierre M

At the EU level the significance of transport policy has continued to grow and with it the implications for those who operate and plan it at national and local levels. The importance of transport commissioner Siim Kallas is obvious, hence his appearance in our top 12 people, but is closely followed by that of Brian Simpson, chair of the European Parliament transport and tourism committee. Matthias Ruete heads the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) in the European Commissio

Alongside the UK’s leading passenger transport directors and decision-makers are their equivalents in Europe, both within the individual states, and across the continent as a whole. New Transit cannot attempt to produce similar lists to that for the UK for each European country, but we do recognise that there is a Europe-wide group of big hitters who either have activity and influence beyond their own borders, or are leaders of innovation and achievement within their own domain, and are e

UK transport is heavily influenced, as elsewhere, by political leaders. Transport problems and challenges exist at both a national and local level and it is Boris Johnson Mayor of London who New Transit believes has continued to be most significant in his interventions in transport over the past year and hence included in our top dozen power people. He faced an election last year against his old adversary Ken Livingstone, which he narrowly won, and then gained the reflected glory of both the Oly

A group of fifty leading senior executives and managers form this year’s New Transit UK passenger transport providers Power List. There are several changes from last year as new appointments have lifted individuals into positions of greater responsibility and others have moved out. Four of the most senior UK passenger transport group heads are featured in our overall top 12 people listing on the previous pages- David Martin at Arriva, Sir Brian Souter at Stagecoach, Tim O’Toole at F

Jerome Gallot, Chief Executive, Veolia Transdev Why is he on the list? Gallot is chief executive of the world’s largest private sector transport group. What kind of year has he had? Distracting. Has spent most of it dealing with the fact that one of the owners of the group doesn’t really want to be in this marriage any more, but doesn’t really want to get out of it unless it gets a really good divorce settlement. Veolia’s shilly-shallying over what to do with it

Alain Flausch, Secretary General UITP Why is he on the list? The International Union of Public Transport has become a big hitter in discussing, presenting and promoting a positive future for public transport. Flausch’s appointment as General Secretary from his previous presidency and leading role in Europe as the head of Brussels Transport has lifted it to an even higher level. What kind of year has he had? Productive. Detailed work on policies has set benchmarks through a range

Guillaume Pepy, Chairman SNCF Why is he on the list? Leads SNCF, second only to DB in Europe and internationally. Bangs the table at EU level. Hard What kind of year has he had? Mixed. Has continued to ensure that SNCF, or train operators in which it has a significant stake, remains the only passenger train operator in France, bar one sleeper train service. Has fought against the EU’s Fourth Railway Package which would threaten this position. Ended 2012 with a large fine for anti

Pierre Mongin, Chief Executive, RATP Why is he on the list? Expansion-minded leader of Paris’s transport operations. What kind of year has he had? Unspectacular. RATP has continued to invest in technology to improve the Paris operations and consolidate its position as a genuine player in world transport markets. But no one is sure about the financial plan. Its European division has meanwhile been swallowed up into a Europe and Asia business unit. Is that taking on too much and migh

It’s a public transport practitioner’s dream experiment: what would happen if a city made its public transport completely free, permanently? The Estonian capital Tallinn is finding out, because as of New Year’s Day, that is exactly what it has done. The city’s local authority says the move will “safeguard social cohesion of local communities by granting equal mobility opportunities to all social strata.” It is hoped that car drivers will find it an incentive

Merseytravel has appointed David Brown (pictured) as its new chief executive/director general. Brown, 47, is currently director general of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, a post he has held since 2008;  he was previously SYPTE’s passenger services director. He is the current chair of the Passenger Transport Executive Group. Merseytravel has been without a chief executive for more than a year, since Neil Scales moved to Australia. Current interim chief executive Frank Ro

Greater Manchester’s Metrolink light rail network reached Rochdale last week. The 4.6-mile extension of the Oldham line to Rochdale’s railway station was inspected by Transport for Greater Manchester chairman Andrew Fender (left) and Rochdale Council leader Colin Lambert (right). The Metrolink network is now 43 miles long and will soon be further extended with the opening of the East Didsbury route through south Manchester this summer (inset). The timetable for further route openings

ON 18 FEBRUARY, which was the tenth anniversary of the introduction of congestion charging in London, The Daily Mirror asked the rhetorical question: “Are commuters getting greener?” “Since the charge for driving in central London was introduced bikes, buses, electric cars and car sharing have taken off,” the paper claimed. “Ken Livingstone’s big idea [was] to make the capital a cleaner, less congested place. But the way in which our capital’s commuters

Crossrail 2, the plan for a new south-west to north-east line under London, is to be promoted as a regional rail scheme rather than a London-focused metro. Business lobby group London First, Transport for London and Network Rail have all been examining the options for the project. One would see it built as a London-focused metro scheme connecting Clapham Junction with Alexandra Palace. But another would see it promoted as a regional scheme connecting South West Trains services into central Lon

WILL JUDGE is quite adamant that the future of transport ticketing is the contactless bankcard and that the days of the dedicated transport smartcard, such as Transport for London’s Oystercard, are very much numbered. Now those of a sceptical bent may raise an eyebrow at this bald statement, given that Judge works for MasterCard, a company that is, fairly obviously, in the contactless bankcard business. Until last November, however, he was head of future ticketing at TfL, where he was resp

On the 150th anniversary of the London Underground author Andrew Martin used a column in The Guardian on 9 January to describe his long-standing love of the Tube. “I began to wonder why all railways couldn’t be like the London Underground,” he began, after describing his first trip on the Tube as a child. “And, in this week marking the 150th anniversary of the system, I wonder still. “Whereas Britain’s above-ground railways were built by men who wanted to mak

“Intelligent travel systems such as ‘pay-and-wave’ technology could help solve traffic congestion and reduce council budgets – so why are many local authorities unaware of the benefits?” an article in the Public Leaders Network section of The Guardian asked on 9 January. “Some of these systems, particularly the Oyster card, have become so commonplace that many people in the capital barely stop to consider just how much it has simplified their daily commute,&rd

MANY TRANSPORT academics may have their doubts about the effectiveness of spending large sums of money upgrading the nation’s transport infrastructure (see page 3) but London mayor Boris Johnson has no such concern. Writing in The Daily Telegraph on 14 January, Johnson described how the construction of the Underground system changed London 150 years ago. “London was the greatest city on earth… as it is today – and the clerks could not get to their place of work,” h

London’s population has grown by almost one million people over the last decade, placing huge additional demands on the capital’s transport networks, according to Transport for London. The capital’s population reached a low point of just over 6.7 million in the late 1980s. But the 2011 Census reports a population of 8.2 million, 12% higher than the 2001 Census estimate, and approaching the previous peak of 8.6 million recorded in the late 1930s. The size of the capital&rsquo

London’s transport commissioner Peter Hendy (pictured) has been knighted for services to transport and the community in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours. Howard Collins, London Underground’s chief operating officer, received an OBE for services to the London 2012 Games and London Underground. Professor Alan Woodwide, director, transport and road assessment centre at the University of Ulster received an OBE for services to highway engineering in Northern Ireland. Mel Mehmet,

Like dinosaurs, a lot of people in public transport still remain wedded to a vision comprising a number of discrete modes.  The one they are concerned with themselves is the important one, of course- be it bus, rail or tram for example, and the rest have their acknowledged, but inferior, little world - with even a space maybe reserved in the mobility mix for active travel (foot and bike), boat and plane. But join them up as a seamless boundary-less offer, never!  You can’t mix ru

Vehicle interiors are a regular part of my work - and perhaps the most challenging. Trying to make them attractive, exciting, stylish, cool, classy, sassy, striking, calming, sumptuous, possibly all at the same time. So it strikes me as odd that the very environment that can make people enjoy a journey and relish making it again, can so often be average to bad. Let down by poor design, inferior detailing and a singular lack of understanding as to how our eyes need to be pleased, let alone our ba

The European railway industry put on an impressive display of its buoyancy and technological innovation at this year’s biennial Innotrans exhibition in Berlin. There could be little doubt that the sector is booming and the manufacturers are on a impressive programme of technological innovation and design development- particularly in the areas of high speed trains, high capacity commuter rolling stock, new generation trams and providing vehicles to the growing number of open access and priv

As a youngster, I used to run for the bus to go to school, and when I got to the stop on time, I often couldn’t get on board because it was full. I didn’t feel I could count on the bus. Actually, I didn’t really understand how the system worked at all. The timetable at the bus stop never seemed to reflect the reality! This meant that I never knew if I was waiting in vain, and if I’d be better off running to school. I have to admit I ended up running a lot! The funny thi

Operators, infrastructure and technology suppliers, passenger representatives and a wide range of other stakeholders gathered at the Travel 2020 event to discuss how technology is driving change in the transport sector. Much of the discussion revolved around the importance of achieving a customer-focused approach by listening to passengers and putting their needs at the centre of future developments. This revolutionary idea of listening to the customer might sound like a statement of the mind-

Non-stop interchange One of the things that most spoils high speed rail is the need for trains to make intermediate stops. The faster the train’s design speed, the greater the penalty for stopping. While it’s no problem on a low speed rural branch line for a local train stop at a station, the amount of time it takes to decelerate a high speed train from 200mph to 0mph, and then back again, makes a huge addition to its journey time, which could otherwise be offered for end-to-end t

Smart Links - the range of short distance, often automated transport modes - have begun to shake up long-held models of what public transport is, and what it can do, over the last decade. Yet they are still only just beginning to show their true utility. This fledgling sector could well be in a position similar to the early years of railway development, when pioneering lines showed the potential, but it took several years before the rest of the world caught on and railway mania exploded. If so

A potential contradiction lies at the heart of current developments in heavily used urban public transport:  Capacity versus comfort. To be popular, and play its part in the functioning of cities, most practitioners would agree that public transport in cities should be attracting motorists from their use of private cars, by providing a high quality alternative. To be cost effective however, particularly at peak times, each vehicle also needs to shift high volumes of people. The balancing

I t might be a conventional heavy rail infrastructure operator, but Britain’s Network Rail has been doing some very unconventional thinking about what sort of vehicles could run passenger services on its tracks. Railways don’t have to be operated by trains, it acknowledges. Blended mode technologies like guided buses and tram-trains might be just as appropriate, and even trains themselves might operate differently to today’s conventional understanding. Network Rail’s &

When does a light rail scheme become a metro? And when does a metro become a suburban or commuter rail system? As railway vehicle technologies and system specifi cations move forward, it is becoming increasingly hard to tell where the dividing line is, and as successful light rail schemes generate more patronage, they are morphing into something much more like metros where planners and promoters are willing to let systems develop organically. Likewise with the arrival of more cross city commute

Will the next generation of London’s tube trains have driver’s cabs or not? There seems to be some back peddling within Transport for London over an apparent earlier commitment to push ahead with automation like that already under way in Paris (New Transit November/December 2011). London Mayor Boris Johnson, before his re-election to the post this summer, promised never to order tube trains with conventional driving cabs again, though it was conveniently unclear what he meant by th

New Transit makes a point of talking as much about service delivery and marketing issues, and the systems and technologies that can enhance them, as the design and capability of passenger transport vehicles themselves. But the development of the different modal options is an important part of the changing passenger transport equation. In this issue we look in depth at the way distinctions between the different types of transport vehicles- train, tram, bus and coach etc - is becoming blurred, and

The Chancellor is to cut the resource budgets of the DfT and other Whitehall departments next year in order to increase capital investment including around £1bn for strategic road upgrades. The Autumn statement announced grant funding for improvements for routes including the A1 and A30, and also saw a £1bn loan to pay for an extension of the Northern Line in London to Nine Elms approved. More to follow.

The economy of South Yorkshire and the Sheffield City Region is undergoing a major transformation. The creation of new jobs, improvement of skills and increase in productivity are at the heart of this. Our transport system and travel culture are an integral part of this change, because they need to facilitate employment opportunities and maximise efficiency, while at the same time minimising carbon emissions and other impacts on our area’s high quality natural environment. The Local Susta

For over 10 years Nottingham has been working towards achieving one shared objective: providing a high quality, integrated, attractive and affordable public transport system. Our successful public transport network now carries 76 million passengers a year. Since 2003 the number of passengers has increased 13% and, unlike most of English cities, Nottingham has experienced a renaissance in bus use reflecting the high standards of quality. The Nottingham Local Transport Plan’s vision is to

A multi-million pound package of improvements featuring the latest technology will be at the heart of sustainable travel in the West Midlands. Smartcard and real-time information technology form key milestones in the Smart Network, Smarter Choices project. This has been drawn up by Centro, the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, in close collaboration with the Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley and Solihull councils, as well as private rail and bus operators

With the outlook for the European market still gloomy at best, many UK businesses are looking abroad for new opportunities. At SKM Colin Buchanan, we are not only looking overseas for new projects, but also to what can be learnt from our international colleagues whose projects haven’t always been affected by the same levels of austerity cuts. These can provide inspiration for LSTF projects, which will enable the UK to implement significant behaviour change projects alongside capital infras

Improving the delivery of local services at a time of economic uncertainty and constrained budgets is never easy. That is something I learned as leader of Lewes District Council during the recession of the early 1990s. But it is often during times of challenge and change that we are inspired to find more creative solutions to enduring problems. Implementing a genuinely smart, sustainable and innovative travel programme should be a core priority for councils today. It is vital that we find new

You recently reported London’s Oxford Street as a possible recipient of trams. Now you report the New West End Company suggesting that Crossrail’s opening will justify fewer buses on the street, allowing more space to be given to pedestrians (“Crossrail ‘justifies fewer buses on Oxford Street’” LTT?12 Oct). Here is Istanbul’s response to similar pressures of space (see illustration). The Taxim–Tünel vintage tram supplies many solutions. It on

The UK’s urban transport systems lag behind the best in Europe because our transport policy-makers are too timid, too old and too male-dominated, and don’t have enough cash to spend, according to a new book by John Whitelegg, one of the country’s leading transport and environmental thinkers. Quality of life and public management covers a wider territory than just transport but the topic inevitably takes centre stage, given Whitelegg’s 40-year transport career spanning ac

Success in a nice problem to have, but finding the best solution to the problem of a lack of capacity in the face of rising passenger numbers can prove challenging. A number of rapid transit systems across Europe are facing that challenge in different ways. Introducing Bus Rapid Transit has a record of building the market by changing perceptions of conventional bus services, and in the UK, the Cambridgeshire guided busway opened last year has proved a real hit. It carried its one-millionth pass

W hat makes a great city – or more to the point, a great city to live and work in, enjoy, travel around easily and feel good about being in. And, from the perspective of those of us working in the mobility field, what kind of transport system helps deliver such a place? Rankings abound declaring which are the best cities in the world to live in, for example, the HR consultancy firm Mercer puts out an annual Quality of Living Survey, and the Economist Intelligence Unit produces both the Gl

M ost public transit users in urban areas do not just take individual bus and rail services. They use “the system.” And that means alighting from a metro or rail station and connecting to a bus to complete a journey, or vice versa. It’s a regular activity but not always easy. How many cities make this process logical, convenient and user-friendly with wayfinding signage from the station exit directing people to the bus stop, with appropriate maps and supporting information to

Businesses in London’s West End are calling for the number of buses serving Oxford Street to be dramatically reduced when Crossrail opens, with more roadspace being given to pedestrians. The call comes in a new five-year business plan by the New West End Company (NWEC), the Business Improvement District (BID) management and promotional company for Bond Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street and 22 connecting streets.  NWEC describes the capital’s east-west Crossrail scheme, wh

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of argument about the respective advantages of LRT (light rail transit) over BRT (bus rapid transit), and occasionally vice-versa. Little of this debate has actually shed much light on the subject, however, not least because many of the comparisons made have actually been quite selective. Writing off BRT as being “LRT on the cheap” does not actually identify where BRT might work best, any more than highlighting the cost blowouts of many n

The severity of the ‘infection’ varies from place to place – all those affected show signs of (economic) recovery, although their experiences through the process of infection are mixed. To the observer of international activity it sometimes feels that new BRT systems in China appear as often as the bus headways those systems advocate. The USA is similarly seeing significant growth in systems and those cities with BRT seem to be expanding and improving. So what is happening in

Lessons should always be learnt from exemplar projects. One such project is in the York region suburbs, just north of Toronto. Toronto has long been considered a model of good transportation planning practice. As with many cities in Canada and in the United States, the suburbs that surround the primary downtown city have also experienced tremendous residential and employment growth. The problem is that, when growth occurs in the suburbs, it tends to be harder to serve by public transit. The re

Smart ticketing is strongly supported by the Department for Transport, which has as one of its aims “delivering, with operators and public sector bodies, the infrastructure to enable most public transport journeys to be undertaken using smart ticketing by December 2014 “. So it is perhaps no surprise that proposals for existing and future BRT schemes include smart ticketing elements. For example, the Pennine Reach BRT project in East Lancashire plans to build on the NoWcard platform

Forty-two years may seem like a long time – but for a totally new concept in transportation to become accepted and proven over that time on a variety of major schemes across the UK is really quite remarkable. While the real boom in BRT schemes has occurred over the last few years, the first to be launched was in Runcorn, near Liverpool, in 1971. Pioneering in its time, the Runcorn Busway was a very clever idea; a completely segregated bus system running on its own dedicated roads, circula

The digital revolution has unlocked a rush of new information systems that offer diverse ways of putting both encyclopaedic and highly specific rail and bus service information in front of users. But by their very diversity and variety such messages risk being overlooked in the resultant potential ‘information overload’. Sometimes, a single simple overriding ‘alert’ or ‘announcement’ needs to get through above the rest. The basic means to do this - the publi

An invitation to contribute to New Transit from my perspective as an information and systems design specialist came just as Britain’s transport network was being put to a significant test in the form of handling the intensive movement needs of the Olympics. It was a perfect showcase for a whole range of issues affecting transport in the new digital information era - and the implications for those who run the system, and travel on it. So I can’t resist the opportunity to look at the

Relatively short connections in the transport network can have a disproportionate significance in both addressing end-to-end journey requirements, and complementing the accessibility needs of large activity sites and potential new development opportunities. In this field, some recent innovative systems are showing exciting potential to tackle problems in new ways – and even more economically and rapidly than hitherto. A group of emerging, new generation short transport concepts are offe