TRANSPORT & TRAVEL MANAGEMENT
– can we have both?
Can the introduction of new transport infrastructure be achieved in a sustainable way? Or is there a trade-off between ‘green’ and ‘growth’? Kate Ashley reports from the Labour conference fringe.
M
any local authorities would love to see more sustainable transport in their
areas: but achieving this requires serious effort and investment.
One key factor is integrating different transport modes, which was discussed at a fringe event at the Labour conference attended by PSE.
The event, hosted by Dods Sustainable Transport Dialogue, was chaired by Cllr Peter Box, who is leader of Wakefi eld Council and chair of the LGA Economy and Transport Board.
Discussion focused on how public transport must be supported to replace shorter car journeys, and how intelligent pricing, access and integration with other forms of transport were essential to encouraging this modal shift. The panel concluded that the public sector could not have one without the other, and that
Haigh concluded: “You cannot have one without the other, green and growth.”
Incentives
In the debate that followed the speakers’ presentations, some questions from the fl oor touched on setting the right pricing structure to incentivise the use of public transport, the need for cross-modal ticketing and whether HS2 is the best way forward.
On the issue of pricing, Labour’s Dr Alan Whitehead MP considered how the move towards passengers paying for the majority of rail costs through fares affected the country’s competitiveness.
He said: “We have to compete with other countries where transport is simply much cheaper. It’s about the way in which systems are set up and the same with the ticketing.”
programmes manager at Centro, discussed the benefi ts of multi-operated ticketing, and highlighted that this was available in the West Midlands across buses, metro and rail. The biggest opportunity for the evolution of this was in smartphone technology, he said.
He reiterated a point posed by other members of the panel, that short-distance trips, such as the school run, presented the easiest way for sustainable transport to be implemented and generate huge savings.
“This is where sustainable transport works,” he said, “get people out of their cars for short distance trips – you can start to get big effi ciencies on the network, goods and people can move around much more easier, creating benefi ts for us all.”
Haigh added that policy decisions on sustainable transport go far beyond that discipline, stating:
All images © Paul Heartfi eld
future progress of sustainable transport must embrace both ‘green’ and ‘growth’.
Better by bus
The bus was presented as a quietly successful alternative to the car, and is an important element of the sustainable transport mix.
Claire Haigh, chief executive of Greener Journeys, highlighted that more people use the bus to commute and visit the high street than by all other forms of public transport combined. Bus commuters generate around £64bn in economic output, she said, while 400,000 workers are in better, more productive jobs as a direct result of buses.
The bus is also vital to young people to acces education, training and fi rst jobs, Haigh added. It “needs to be factored into any growth strategy”, she said, as it is “delivering very substantial economic outputs.”
60 | public sector executive Sep/Oct 12
“It is diffi cult,” he admitted and suggested that “instead of trying to lay large bits of new concrete around the country, it would be quite good if we joined up the public transport that we have got; this has got to be a priority.”
A Stop HS2 campaigner pointed out that the most sustainable form of transport was no transport at all – and suggested that broadband improvements could connect people in a more eco-friendly than big transport projects such as HS2.
The panel accepted her point about the need to reduce transport across the board, but insisted that the implementation of HS2 could free up capacity that if used to transfer freight from road to rail, would have a signifi cant effect on carbon emissions.
Short distance trips, big effi ciencies Sandeep Shingadia, sustainability and
“It’s actually education, local government, employment, training, it goes way beyond transport. It needs to go across all areas.”
Joint working
Criticising the Coalition, Dr Whitehead said that “most of the ability for local authorities to work together has been taken apart”, leaving a sub-optimal planning system.
He said: “The outcome of that is that even with funding, the ability to actually introduce the sorts of schemes we’re talking about is seriously curtailed,” adding that councils must work together to facilitate sustainable transport projects through wider regional planning.
“We absolutely need infrastructure that supports low carbon journeys in the future,” he concluded.
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