Chapter 2 - What we have achieved CM 6234
The publication of the 10 Year Plan for transport, in July 2000, marked the beginning of a more strategic approach to transport. We have subsequently taken the unprecedented step of setting out a strategic framework for the development of airport capacity over the next 30 years.
2.1 The Plan provided an investment framework over a 10-year period to 2010-11. The sustained investment and long term view was unprecedented. It marked the end of stop-start funding and short term planning which had blighted transport in previous decades.
2.2 With this additional investment we have made real progress over the last few years.
We have improved the road system by:
- investing in new capacity with 18 major strategic road schemes completed since 2002, plus the widening of the A2/M2 and the M6 Toll, and five major local road schemes completed since 2000. Plus major investment to tackle the worst bottlenecks, with 97 of the 100 trunk road improvements announced in June 2000 completed;
- tackling congestion by introducing trained officers to get traffic moving again on strategic roads, providing new powers for local authorities to keep the traffic on their roads moving;
- developing new systems to provide information for road users and network managers, to allow smarter decision making;
- reducing the impact of major roadworks on traffic flow;
- improving the response to winter weather;
- promoting better ways of travelling through initiatives such as workplace and school travel plans and marketing to encourage people to choose alternatives to their cars for some journeys;
- providing advice and information to help older and disabled drivers identify their needs and, where possible, to continue to drive safely, through the Department's Mobility Advice and Vehicle Information Service and through funding mobility centres throughout England; and
- making it easier for people to conduct business with government, such as booking a driving test, by exploiting technology to improve customer service.
Transport Direct - A New Service for Travellers
Transport Direct will be a comprehensive, user-friendly travel information service. It will provide travellers with integrated travel planning and provides links to internet retailers and ticketing services. The service will be formally launched later this year.
The initial service will cover travel by car, train, coach, bus, tram, taxi and foot, with air being added in late 2004. Transport Direct will remove barriers to travel information by offering a one-stop shop. It can offer information on different forms of transport, helping travellers to make better-informed travel decisions.
The Government has developed Transport Direct in conjunction with the transport industry using existing data sources and journey planning systems. It is based on locational information to enable journeys to be planned between home addresses and amenities or places of interest. This enables Transport Direct to be concerned with the reasons for travelling rather than the means of travel. The initial service is based on the internet. The initial service will be expanded to enable access via digital television, mobile devices and kiosks.
We have reduced the impact of transport on the environment by:
- working with the industry and the European Union to ensure that emissions of air pollutants and carbon dioxide from new cars have continually decreased;
- introducing tax and grant incentives to encourage people to switch to cleaner vehicles;
- turning down proposals for roads and other developments where the cost to the environment was judged to be too high; and
- providing research, development, standards and demonstration funding for new technologies.
Our railway system has been improved by:
- investing in the network with projects such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line. And last year over 800 miles of track were renewed;
- over 1,500 new railway vehicles being introduced in the last two and a half years as part of the biggest replacement programme for rolling stock ever seen in this country;
- four new light rail lines have already opened and the Public Private Partnership (PPP) will inject massive investment into the London Underground network;
- beginning to deal with the legacy of privatisation through the creation of Network Rail to replace Railtrack; and
- a commitment to modernising the power supply south of the Thames.
We have improved local transport by:
- significantly increasing investment - total Government capital support has risen from £650 million in 2000-01 to £1.9 billion in 2004-05;
- introducing Local Transport Plans to give local authorities greater certainty about future funding and more flexibility over decisions;
- devolving decisions for transport to the Mayor in London and the devolved administrations;
- supporting bus use with improved infrastructure. Outside London, over 1,200 kilometres of bus priority schemes were completed last year, helping to make buses a more attractive alternative;
- improving access by requiring all new public transport to be accessible to people who have mobility difficulties, including wheelchair users, and by ensuring that all older and disabled people can travel for half-price fares on their local bus services;
- supporting community transport services, which provide a vital lifeline for many people, by making flexibly routed services easier to register and extending Bus Service Operator Grant to cover these services;
- improving information on public transport services, for example by increasing the availability of real time information;
- using land use planning to ensure that, where possible, jobs, shops and services are located where they are accessible by walking, cycling and public transport;
- reversing the long-term decline in bus use;
- publishing Walking and Cycling: an action plan(1) a collection of practical actions and good practice studies to support and encourage more walking and cycling; and
- funding thousands of schemes through local authorities to make cycling and walking easier, safer and more attractive across the country.
We have improved the framework for aviation and shipping by:
- publishing the Future of Air Transport White Paper. This took the major step of setting a strategic framework for the development of aviation over the next 30 years, planning ahead for the pressures that we know we will face in the future;
- ensuring the best possible use is made of existing runways. Also supporting an additional runway at Stansted and, providing the environmental concerns can be met, an additional runway at Heathrow. And the safeguarding of land at Gatwick for a new runway in case conditions attached to a new Heathrow runway cannot be met;
- supporting a new runway at Birmingham and the safeguarding of land for one at Edinburgh and other developments at airports across the country;
- supporting the shipping industry to ensure that the UK retains a leading role; and
- developing a more business friendly approach, resulting in a trebling in size of the UK-registered fleet since 1997.
We have contributed to improvements in the freight industry by:
- promoting measures to help the industry improve its efficiency, reducing unnecessary lorry movements;
- introducing taxation policies to reduce the environmental impact of freight; and
- developing policies that offer the best outcomes for our economy, society, and environment, rather than aiming to promote one form of transport over another.
We have promoted measures to improve safety and security by:
- setting out, in our road safety strategy, Tomorrow's Roads - Safer for Everyone(2) , a coherent framework for significantly improving road safety;
- achieving a 22 per cent reduction in people killed and seriously injured on Britain's roads in the last six years;
- securing vehicle safety improvements through negotiation with other governments and with the vehicle manufacturing industry;
- making our streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians by promoting safer road designs and by supporting road safety training for children;
- completing the Train Protection and Warning System programme to improve safety by preventing trains overrunning red signals;
- improving personal safety on all modes of transport by working with transport operators, local authorities, the police and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to reduce and prevent crime on our transport system; and
- taking the initiative in the European Union and working closely with others to respond to the terrorist threat, and to ensure that our transport systems and the people using them and working on them are properly protected.
(1) Department for Transport, June 2004
(2) Department for Transport, March 2004
