25 September 2013
'Transport Priorities' event reviewed
The event 'Sustainable Transport Priorities' was held in Edinburgh on 10 September 2013. John Webster reports on the event:
At the event Transform Scotland's development officer, Emma Margrett circulated a survey. We are still very keen to hear your views. Please click here to fill in the survey. Introduction:The Chair of Transform Scotland, Phil Matthews, opened the discussion by summarising some of the findings from the previous year’s ‘Warning Signs’ report. It did not make good reading with:
• Traffic volumes up
• Miles travelled by car/year up
• Carbon emission increasing or, at best, flat-lining
• Local air quality and noise pollution as bad as ever
Scottish Government policy had shown some rail investment in such areas as Border Rail re-opening and EGIP, although the latter had been curtailed and pushed back to some extent. The SG had ambitious targets for cycling as a share of commuter travel, 10% of journeys within the next decade but, as yet, little investment in infrastructure to make this likely to happen. Road spending was eating up 40% of the Scottish budget, whereas active travel was about 1%!
Planning within our cities left a lot to be desired, compared with many of our European neighbours. We are still building new housing estates in out of town areas with poor public transport with the result that car use is unavoidable. Within cities, cycling infrastructure is lacking, whereas in Denmark and The Netherlands, massive investment in recent decades has resulted in cycling taking a 40-50% share of travel modes. One result is high obesity levels in Scotland: 28% in Scotland; 15% in Germany; 12% in The Netherlands. Only the car-obsessed USA has as high or higher levels of obesity!
Yet, 40% of all journeys are less than 2 miles in length and the provision of safer cycling and walking infrastructure could achieve a modal shift from car to cycle as been seen in many countries. The weather is no worse here than in Denmark, the hills no worse than in Germany. The missing elements are safe infrastructure and a change in culture, whereby cycling is seen as poor man’s mode of transport.
Review of Last Year’s Projects:Colin Howden gave a brief overview of some of the major reports produced by Transform Scotland during the last 12 months and summarised them as follows:
1. Warning Signs: a review of how well the Scottish Government is performing against its own targets for modal shift from private to public transport; reduction in GHG emissions; and transport-related investment. The signs were not good as just about every target had been failed and investment was heavily weighted towards road building rather than active travel or rail.
2. On Track for Business: a comparison of the economic value for travel between Edinburgh/ Glasgow and London by air and rail. At the moment. Only about 12% of business trips are by rail, even though the price can be lower; journey time comparable from city centre to city centre; and productivity greater by rail with the availability of WiFi etc.
3. Cycle Tourism: an investigation of the value of cycle tourism to Scotland and the potential for growth in this booming sector of tourism. An estimate of £239m was obtained for the current value of cycle tourism to Scotland with strong potential for increase through innovative marketing.
Review of Current Work:1.
On Track for Business: David Spaven spoke about the report he had been commissioned to prepare and issued this year on the topic of switching from air to rail for Central Belt to London business trips. He reflected on the fact that GHG emissions from air travel was one of the fastest growing sources and compared the 27kg of CO2 by rail compared with 84kg by air for the journey. Switching large numbers of travellers from air to rail would also free up landing slots at London and reduce the call for another runway. Among the many benefits of rail business travel was increased productivity; similar city centre to city centre journey times; less hassle from security checks; more comfort with better leg room and a meal provided during the trip. Rail is also, on average, significantly cheaper than air; nevertheless, rail only has 12% of the business market at present so room for huge improvement.
2.
Inter-City Express:Paul Tetlaw gave more details of this campaign to re-open the Inverkeithing – Perth direct rail link, closed in the 1970s. An NPF3 proposal was submitted earlier this year to kick-start the idea and several meetings have been held with MSPs, Transport Scotland officials, business and other parties. The re-opening could cut at least 30 minutes off the journey from Inverkeithing to Perth and beyond to Inverness. Estimated cost is around £1b but this has to be compared with the £3b being spend to dual the A9 and billions on other road building schemes. It is sobering to consider that the fastest current journey by rail between Edinburgh and Dundee is currently 64 minutes compared with 59 minutes in 1895!
3.
Cities:Anna Brand spoke of another project idea relating to “Cities” and building on an earlier Transform Scotland report “Civilising the Streets”, which compared 13 European cities with Scotland’s main cities. The conclusions were that there is an urgent need to promote active travel, improve public transport, and prioritise spending on active travel infrastructure. Anna showed a video she had prepared, with voice-over by David Spaven, on the benefits to the community of a modal shift from car to cycle. This is now available on the Transform Scotland website to a wider audience via YouTube.
4.
Public Sector Travel:Jetta Doran described a research project looking at the public bodies and the extent to which they encouraged active travel by their employees through the use of active travel plans. This was done by means of a questionnaire, which had 124 responses, or about 82%. In general the quality of the active travel plans was poor, which was disappointing, given that public bodies should be among the first to implement government policy in this area. The findings will be written up into a report by Aiofe Parker-Hedderman, which Transform Scotland intends to publish later this year.
5.
Scottish Government Budget:Colin Howden closed this part of the meeting by wondering what might be in the budget due to be unveiled within the next couple of days and highlighted a few issues.
• Transform Scotland is pushing for better road maintenance of existing roads rather than building new ones.
• Buses are built in Scotland so we need more investment is this mode of travel to help sustain this business.
• Active travel needs investment because this type of infrastructure delivers jobs locally, rather than to foreign companies and leads to less congestion and better health.
The Chair then opened the meeting to the attendees and this led to many interesting questions from the floor, some of which are summarised below.
General Discussion and Suggestions:a) Where does Transform Scotland (TS) stand on High Speed Rail (HSR)? – TS believe that it is needed because there is now a lack of capacity on the west coast line and if more capacity is built it should be HSR.
b) What can be done to get integrated ticketing within Scotland? – Part of problem is fragmented transport systems, which makes integration more difficult to achieve. Smart Card will help by allowing its use on any form of public transport although not the ideal solution.
c) Does TS support nationalisation of public transport in view of the high cost of same-day rail travel? – No strong views on the issue but do not see much support from any political party. Some form of regulation, along Swiss franchise lines, is possible but not a TS priority at the moment.
d) What is TS view on 20mph zones but with no bumps or other measures? – TS feel that some of this is just “box-ticking” by local authorities because designation is easy but, in the absence of enforcement by police or cameras or humps, one has to question how effective.
e) What is TS view on Highland Main Line upgrade, scheduled for 2027 completion? – doing it in parallel with A9 upgrade will lead to massive disruption. It should be brought forward for earlier completion because, if it is later than A9, it could lead to loss of rail business to road from shorter journey times.
f) What is TS view on balance of transport investment? – TS feel there needs to be an even playing field with road and rail receiving similar shares so that journey times are competitive and allow fair choice for travellers. This is also true of freight, which could take huge load off the A9 if SG policy were shaped in a way to encourage this modal shift.
The Chair closed the meeting at about 20.00 hours and invited Members and others to stay back and enjoy a glass of wine and snacks and to carry on any discussions of interest.