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Bleak future for uk rapid transit, says new report

New rapid transit systems in the UK face a bleak future, further threatening the Government’s 10-year Transport Plan aspirations - according to Rapid Transit Monitor 2004, a new report from leading transport consultants TAS. 

A combination of factors - including rising costs, poor scheme planning and attempts to transfer too much risk to the private sector - threatens to derail attempts to deliver better public transport systems to many towns and cities around the country, says the report.

Since the last edition of the report was published in 2002, plans for schemes in Manchester, Leeds and South Hampshire have suffered from funding problems, whilst other schemes in Bristol and Chester have been abandoned altogether, despite being given provisional Government funding approval.  Local authorities in Luton have fallen out over plans for a guided busway linking the busy airport with the town centre and Dunstable, despite being awarded Government funding last December.

“There has been some good news,” commented the report’s editor Chris Cheek, “with the opening of a new guided busway in Crawley last summer, and this week’s opening of the Nottingham system. But overall, it’s a grim picture.”

Despite an overall increase in the number of passengers carried on light rail systems in 2002/03, mounting losses are being incurred by Private Finance Initiative companies in Manchester, Croydon, Sheffield and the West Midlands. The latest accounts for these four systems show total pre-tax losses of £16.2m on revenue of just £48.8m – a loss margin of over 33%. “Each of these systems has had its own unique problems,” commented Cheek, “but the overall picture is clearly affecting private sector attitudes to future PFI schemes.”

Concerning future schemes and extensions, the report cites several criticisms of public sector plans, including:

• failure to deliver substantial improvements in journey time over existing modes

• adopting tortuous alignments which reduce average speed

• plans which stop short of key destinations, or which switch from one radial corridor to another; both of which mean that parallel bus services will be maintained to serve those communities, so increasing risk and reducing patronage

• a failure to maximise potential ridership by putting park and ride opportunities at the heart of projects; or, where they are included, failing to address key market requirements for successful sites

“There can be little doubt that light rail and other forms of rapid transit do have a huge potential role in improving public transport in the UK – and that the private sector can play a role in delivering such systems: but the public sector needs to raise its game in proposing the right scheme and in getting the risk allocation right,” concludes the report.

ENDS

For further information, contact Chris Cheek on 0870 900 1440

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. TAS Publications & Events is the publishing arm of The TAS Partnership. Founded in 1989, TAS has since grown to become the UK’s leading specialist public transport consultancy.  Its recent clients include the Department for Transport, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Department for Regional Development, all the major transport groups and a wide range of local authorities throughout the country.

2.  Over the past ten years, TAS has been involved as advisor in light rail and busway schemes in Bristol, Crawley, Croydon, Docklands, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Kent, Manchester, Nottingham and South Hampshire.

3. Rapid Transit Monitor 2004 is the 7^th in a series of reports which have been published regularly since 1991. The title is one of a stable of publications reporting on the UK public transport industry, including Bus Industry Monitor, Rail Industry Monitor, Concessionary Fares UK and Park & Ride Great Britain.