18.09.17
A challenge for the rail industry?
Source: RTM Aug/Sep 17
Tim Bellenger, director of policy and investigation at London TravelWatch, discusses the opportunities and challenges the draft mayor’s Transport Strategy poses for the sector.
June 2017 saw the publication of the draft mayor’s Transport Strategy. This included some very ambitious targets for increasing the proportion of journeys made by non-car modes of transport in the capital (up to 80%), and also for improving London’s air quality. These targets present challenges for the rail industry, but also significant opportunities for growing passenger numbers.
The strategy focuses on three specific areas: healthy streets and healthy people, a good public transport experience, and new homes and new jobs. Each of these areas highlights the need to focus on improving the end-to-end passenger experience and how interchanges work for passengers. As a large proportion of these journeys will be ones which don’t involve central London, the rail industry will need to think about how it improves orbital and suburban journeys. For example, by changing stopping patterns and creating new stations and/or improving key interchanges such as at Old Oak Common, Brixton and West Hampstead.
In healthy streets, for example, many potential passengers may choose not to use rail, not because of the service, but because of a poor street environment for pedestrians and cyclists on the parts of the journey. Rail operators need to think beyond the ‘red line’ of their station leases, working with local authorities to ensure that the streets around their stations are walking- and cycling-friendly.
Good interchange facilities and improving accessibility also have a significant role in encouraging modal shift to rail. As London’s multimodal transport watchdog, London TravelWatch has produced a good practice guide for interchanges and held several seminar events for the industry. We are now starting to see activity at both a local and strategic level as a result of our work. Most recently, we have produced a piece of work on improving the passenger experience at smaller stations (more details in RTM June/July 2017).
The creation of new jobs and homes in the right places to be served easily by rail is strategically important not only in developing future patronage, but also for managing capacity. The rail industry needs to help the mayor identify the best places to create those new homes, making best use of existing and planned new capacity.
The need to improve air quality is an opportunity for the rail industry to encourage modal shift to rail, but it is also a challenge where rail is still reliant on the diesel engine. Surely the time has come for electrifying the Chiltern route into Marylebone, the last all-diesel route into London? It stands out as a pollution hotspot in the maps in the draft mayor’s Transport Strategy, as do other routes that use small numbers of diesel trains such as the Uckfield route trains into London Bridge, or the Exeter route trains into Waterloo. Electrifying modest lengths of line mainly outside of London would bring benefits to passengers and economies to the cost of running the rail industry, as well as tackling the problem of air quality.
This strategy is ambitious, but there are opportunities for the rail industry to play its part and make the links to it for the benefit of passengers. The consultation closes on 2 October.
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