Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Transport Debate

An interesting and wide ranging transport committee meeting took place this morning.


Hammersmith Flyover

Leon Daniels from TfL gave us an update on Hammersmith Flyover, which was closed for emergency work over Christmas and the New Year. One lane is now open and operating in each direction whilst work takes place to replace steel cables inside the unique 1961 structure. The new cables will be made of stronger steel and with the concrete still in very good condition, the strengthened flyover is expected to last for several decades. Only one section was found to be badly damaged so the emergency work is going to be less than expected.


River Transport

Sean Collins from Thames Clippers appeared alongside TfL, the PLA and my colleague Dick Tracey, taking questions in his role as Mayoral Ambassador for River Transport. Over ten years the number of river passengers had grown from 1.6 million to 4.1 million per year - not including the 2 million users of the Woolwich Ferry. Of these, two thirds were commuters with the remainder being tourists.

4.1 million sounds like a lot but it is no more than an average suburban bus route would transport over twelve months. The Mayor's ambition was to get the number up to 12 million per year. With 10 million per year using river services in Brisbane - a much smaller city - this target was felt to be reasonable. In Brisbane a milder climate, better coordination with bus routes and the lack of an underground railway had all contributed to the high numbers.

Dick talked about plans to extend river services upstream with commuter boats calling at Putney. Further west would be more difficult because the water was relatively shallow at low tide. I asked about plans to extend services downstream to Rainham, allowing commuting from Essex and improving access to the nature reserve at Rainham Marshes. Sean Collins was very positive, stating that a service already ran to Tilbury, although it only served cruie ship passengers currently. Dick talked about introducing a park and ride facility at Rainham, encouraging commuters to leave their cars just where the A13 became congested.


Tube Extensions

Witnesses from TfL discussed the Tube extensions currently under consideration.

The most advanced of these is the Northern Line extension to Battersea. With a price tag of £900 million, private sector financing is essential so the plans had been set back when Treasury Holdings, the private funder, collapsed before Christmas. Despite this TfL are continuing with the Transport & Works Act application to Parliament, in the hope that a new developer can be found. For the longer term they are planning to extend the line to Clapham Junction.

An extension to the Croxley branch of the Metropolitan Line, linking with Watford Junction, is supported by TfL but funding and promotion will be carried out by Herts County Council as the project is outside the Greater London boundary.

Extension of the Bakerloo Line to South East London is supported in the longer term. Caroline Pidgeon and Jenny Jones were very much in favour as they live in Camberwell Green. Funding is not available and the Bakerloo Line upgrade needs to be completed before the 'Camberloo Extension' is considered.

Central Line extensions east to Harlow and west to Uxbridge are being considered, but the business cases are questionable.

Crossrail 2 - previously known as Chelsea to Hackney - is climbing up the list of priorities, spurred on by the agreement of HS2.


Stations

We also examined progress on major station upgrades.

Tottenham Court Road is being enlarged to lift its capacity from 145,000 per day to 250,000 per day - more than the throughput of Heathrow. There will be disabled access and a link to the new Crossrail station. At a cost of £500 million I asked London Underground to consider enlarging the bus stands on the surface, thus making it possible to terminate more services there and relieve bus crowding in Oxford Street.

Victoria is also being enlarged to improve capacity and create a new ticket hall, at a cost of £580 million.

The new Crossrail station and increased capacity at Bond Street is expected to cost £285 million.

Disabled access and improvements to the Hammersmith & City platforms at Paddington are relatively cheap - only £53 million.

A major upgrade at Bank will improve capacity and provide new lifts to street level at an expected cost of £600 million. I suggested that they provide a moving travelator between the Bank and Monument platforms as the walking distance is considerable - much as London Underground have done at Waterloo.

I also suggested that London Underground raise the priority of lift installation at Newbury Park. With a price tag of no more than £20 million this represents a comparatively small investment, yet with National Express East Anglia using the station for their passengers during Liverpool Street line closures, disabled access will benefit many passengers. Network Rail might even be persuaded to stump up some cash for this project.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good news that the river service might stop at Rainham. The under-use of the Thames for transportation compared to mainland European rivers is scandalous.

Roger Evans said...

Good point Anon - the river services to Rotterdam were also described today as a success, and perhaps easier to match than the phenomenal performance of Brisbane...

Redbridge resident said...

"Network rail might even be persuaded to stump up some cash for this project". All pigs fed, watered, and ready to become airborne......

How much was spent on the lifts project at Newbury Park before it was abandoned? And how much on "tarting it up" afterwards?

One of the things that local government tends to do when it does not really have a role is to invent one. Instead of searching around to become a transport provider in Hertfordshire and Essex perhaps TfL and the London Assembly should put their energies into finding ways to ameliorate the already appalling peak hours travel conditions on the existing Central Line rather than extending it even further into an area for which they have no evident responsibility. Such an extension would serve only to increase even further the gross overcrowding.

Mrs Angry said...

Oh dear, more buses and trains: Mr Evans - dear dear. Please find some more interesting topics for lady readers.

Of course we in Broken Barnet heard all about Boris' neo Victorian transport infrastruture plans last night at our marvellous Talk London event. Your chum Brian Coleman was mc, unfortunately, and made sure that no one he recognised was allowed to talk about anything, in case they mentioned parking, councillors allowance rises, the censorship of our residents forums, the closure of our museums & Chase Farm A& E, MetPro, oh and the One Barnet disaster.

Despite this, Boris was able to see to what extreme extent the relationship between voters and the Tories in Barnet have broken down by the reaction over the parking and other issues which somehow slipped through Brian's gagging process.

Do tell Boris that if he wonders what questions the heckling woman in the red dress, third row, wanted to ask him, it's on the blog. I'm sure he will want to know ...

Roger Evans said...

To be fair Mrs A, it was the transport committee so buses and trains might be expected to feature. But they are no longer a male preserve as we have a female deputy mayor for transport, as you have noted.

Your Talk London event sounds like it was fun. Things were much quieter when Boris came here in November.

And visiting your blog has become less enjoyable recently, as the comments cannot be read. You click on 'comments' and the screen goes blank and locks up. I suggest you recalibrate your microgribbles, or something...

Mrs Angry said...

oh dear, re comments ... why oh why? I am beginning to lose my patience with blogger. Or is it me? Probably. The curse of Mrs Angry returning like a boomerang. Will attempt to puzzle out the problem, thanks ...

Mrs Angry said...

Regarding the Dep Mayor for transport, I am afraid she was SO boring I stopped listening. The only thing which might attract my attention on this subject would be if fares were reduced to an affordable level, and the priniple of freezing council tax was extended to transport costs ...
Never going to happen,though, is it?

Redbridge resident said...

This is where you and I have to agree to disagree Mrs Angry. I say let the user pay without such heavy dependence upon the taxpayer. A level of subsidy is all very well, but it should NEVER meet 50% or more of the actual cost.

Mrs Angry said...

well, you may say so, Redbridge Resident - may I call you Redbridge? But today's poll showing Boris & Brian so close in their campaigns proves that the transport issue has upset many Londoners and damaged Boris's chances of re election ...

transport logistics said...

Very well explained about the wide range of transportation

RM11 said...

Redbridge resident writes:
"This is where you and I have to agree to disagree Mrs Angry. I say let the user pay without such heavy dependence upon the taxpayer. A level of subsidy is all very well, but it should NEVER meet 50% or more of the actual cost."

And who pays for the roads and airports?

Redbridge resident said...

Roads are used by everybody, but public transport is not. Since the 1980s airports have been in private ownership, and therefore subsequent development has not been at public expense.

RM11 said...

Redbridge Resident writes:
"Roads are used by everybody, but public transport is not."

There is no direct charge to use a road, either on foot, bike or car < CLUE!

sjm said...

There certainly are direct charges on motorists, private or commercial,to use roads - vehicle licensing and fuel tax!