Swindon’s transport ‘vision’

Swindon Borough Council has produced a consultation document, “2030 – a Transport Vision for Swindon”. This is Swindon Trades Union Council’s submission to the consultation.

The basic contradiction at the heart of Swindon Borough Council’s consultation document is the assertion that massive expansion of the town can go hand in hand with “sustainability”. The document recites the mantra of sustainability but it accepts an expansion of the town which is not the result of deliberation and decision by the local population but a ‘target’ imposed upon us by national government and an un-elected Regional quango. Such growth would have drastic social and environmental consequences. Already the current infrastructure of the town is struggling with the level of car use resulting from the increased population.

The document talks of a “compact” with the government in which the Borough accepts “economic and housing growth” and “expects government to recognise its shared responsibility for enabling investment”. However, as the recent dispute over the amount the government is offering for infrastructure shows, there is little chance of such a “compact”.

The population of Swindon has grown from 151,000 in 1981 to 184,000 in 2005.This has obviously impacted on the growth of road journeys. In the last 15 years the number of kilometres driven on roads in the Borough has increased from an estimated 897 million to 1025 million. In the last five years alone traffic on the outskirts of town has increased by 27%, principally as a result of commuting to work. During the morning peak our roads carry 50,000 vehicles. The capacity is estimated at 60,000. If no action is taken, says the Council consultation document “there will be significant congestion on the roads by 2016”. After 2026 they predict that the congestion will spread to beyond the traditional peaks and average speed of traffic could decline from 27 mph to 18 mph in the morning peak.

This increase in traffic has taken place in the context of a 21% population increase over 25 years. Imagine what is likely to happen if the target population of 250,000 were to be reached by 2030; a nearly 28% increase in 23 years. We believe that the local population should campaign against this imposed growth target.

Historically, of course, the growth of Swindon has been at a much slower pace than expected. In the famous Silver Book of Swindon Council in 1968 the population of Swindon was predicted to 296,000 by the year 2000. We do not believe that 250,000 will be reached by 2030. However, any transport strategy has to answer the question of whether we should aim to stop or reduce the number of car journeys or simply mitigate the impact of their continuing increase resulting from further expansion of the town. The Council appears to chose the latter course, which fails to face up to the challenge of global warming. Amongst the ten local objectives listed in the Council’s Transport Plan we read:

“Manage the impact of traffic growth in Swindon by implementing sustainable mitigation measures.”

Mitigation, of course, means to limit the results of traffic growth rather than stopping it.

Road Transport accounted for an estimated 22% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, according to DEFRA. The only larger component, with 37% is the energy industry. In addition road transport is a major source of pollution which has a detrimental impact on health. It is now a commonplace that in order to tackle climate change there is a need for a significant shift away from cars to rail and buses. The House of Commons Transport Committee has said that “Modal shift from car to bus is vital if the United Kingdom is to properly tackle congestion and reduce carbon emissions.” Yet despite much talk of ’sustainable development’ the radical action which is required to achieve this shift has not been taken, largely as a result of the dominant conception of economic ‘growth’ (any increase in economic activity is automatically a good thing) and a belief that ‘market mechanisms’ can address the crisis.

Whilst in Swindon we have the advantage that the Council effectively still owns the local bus company, deregulation of buses instituted by Thatcher, remains an obstacle to radically improving bus services. Local authorities were no longer permitted to provide ‘blanket support’ for bus services. Whilst Thatcher’s legislation enabled some routes to be subsidised, today only 16% of services receive subsidy. Moreover, it has become a common feature for companies to pull out of providing services in some areas where the rate of profit is not considered high enough, only for them to tender for them when a local authority has to step in, in order to provide a subsidy for a socially necessary service.

It is instructive that whilst in most of the country bus usage has declined from 2,660 million to 2,315 million (since 1995-6), in London they have increased from 1,193 million to 1,810 million. This is the result of a £550 million subsidy (on a £1.4 billion contract). Spending on buses per head is £660 in London compared with £230 outside!

Whilst Swindon Borough Council talks of increasing bus usage, it does not explain how it will achieve this. It requires social subsidy to improve the service provided and to cut the cost of fares to attract people. Whilst the document mentions increased bus lanes, in a meeting earlier this year with the Director of the bus company we were told that there were no plans for more of them.

Public transport should be run as a public service rather than a commercial business. That requires a campaign to end deregulation and to facilitate public subsidy. Local companies should also be approached to provide subsidies for work buses, as a social responsibility for reducing the numbers of their own staff who travel to work by car.

Planning obviously plays a big role in relation to transport because the geography of any town, the composition of developments, determines the level of travel which is necessary. Planning permission for massive hyper-markets, for instance, encourages car journeys. Likewise, other policies can impact on transport. For instance, the early morning school run is the result of so-called ‘parent choice’ and school closures. When children tended to go to local schools, most of them walked the short distance necessary to reach them.

So far as the town centre is concerned the best way to discourage car use is to further pedestrianise it and improve bus services.

The Council’s document is right when it says that:

“Trying to solve congestion by building more roads gives short term relief but it doesn’t solve the underlying problems.”

However, it is wrong when it asserts that an “incremental approach” will suffice. Even if you accept the inevitability of targeted growth to increase towards 250,000 by 2030, the Council should seek to halt the increase of car journeys rather than simply slowing the rate of growth. Only the provision of frequent, fast, and cheap public transport which serves the transport patterns of the populace will get people out of their cars.

We can agree with the aspiration for local train stations since this will take people out of their cars, at least so far as commuters to the town centre are concerned.

Martin Wicks
Secretary, Swindon TUC

December 30th 2007

RMT welcomes MPs’ call to consider sacking First Great Western

AN URGENT call by MPs for the government to consider taking the First Great Western rail franchise back into public ownership was welcomed today by Britain’s biggest rail union.

RMT has applauded the House of Commons motion, tabled by Stroud MP David Drew and signed so far by 19 others, which expresses alarm at the downgrading of rolling stock services in and out of south Wales and the West of England, and calls for an urgent review of the franchise, with a view to taking it back into the public sector.

Delays and overcrowding have accompanied the introduction of FGW’s supposedly improved new timetable this week, as a number of 90mph 158 class trains on commuter routes were replaced with slower, smaller, older and far less comfortable 142 class trains.

“This is yet more evidence that the franchising system simply cannot deliver the railway we need,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“Since the timetable changeover there have been more delays and serious overcrowding on commuter trains in and out of south Wales and Bristol and, as usual, it is our members who are left to pick up the pieces and face the public’s anger.

“It is only a few months since massive passenger and union pressure forced FGW and the government to bring mothballed trains back into service after the last rolling-stock cock-up.

“First may not have chosen these inferior trains, but they will be getting a big discount for leasing them, which they could even end up making bigger profits as a result.

“And there’s more bad news in the pipeline, because the franchise deal allows First to axe buffet cars from high-speed services under 200 miles.That would leave all services to Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol without proper catering facilities, so we need the biggest possible protests now.

“First are also supposed to have built a new train maintenance depot in Bristol, but a year after it was meant to open there is no sign of it being completed, and that leaves maintenance workers having to work on trains in the open without adequate facilities

“Franchising is about maximising profits and not about providing service, and the time has come to end it,” Bob Crow said.

ends

Early Day Motion 546 - First Great Western Rail Services

Tabled by David Drew MP (Stroud) and signed by 19 others as at December 14

That this House notes with continuing concern the performance of First Great Western rail services; is alarmed that the new December 2007 timetable will see the replacement of existing rolling stock with inferior rolling stock which could result in slower, less comfortable and more crowded conditions for passengers; and calls on the Government to intervene urgently to protect the interests of passengers and to conduct an urgent and public review to determine whether the interests of passengers would be better served by bringing the franchise back into public ownership

To view latest the list of signatories, go to:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=34687&SESSION=891

Notes to editors

The material difference in the December 2007 timetable was the introduction of 12 class 142 two-car units (of which eight are planned to be in daily service) and the loss of ten class 158/2 two-car units (of which six 6 were meant to be in daily service).

That means slower, less comfortable and more crowded conditions for passengers, for the following reasons:

Class 158s are 90mph stock, while 142s are 75mph stock;

Class 158s are ‘bogied’ vehicles, while 142s are fixed-wheelbase units, which means that they are unsuitable for certain branch lines with tight curvature of the track (such as Liskeard-Looe in Cornwall), they make an enormous amount of noise pollution screeching round bends, The absence of bogie suspension also creates serious levels of jarring and juddering, giving passengers and staff a very rough ride. They also cause damage to track and points and therefore unpopular with Network Rail

Class 158 two-car sets have a seating capacity of 132 (between 11 and 25 more than the class 142). Class 142 trains look like a bus on train wheels, and that is basically what they are. They have 2 coaches, each consisting of a bus body with a cab riveted on the end, mounted on one single axle at each end of the coach. Seating was originally bus-style seats, but many units now have high-backed train seats, and a capacity of between 106 and 121

Climate of Anger at Consultation Process

Here is a press release from Swindon Climate Action Network following a meeting on Monday which Swindon TUC participated in. The meeting addressed the Borough Council’s consultation on its document: “2030 - A Vision for Transport”. It was agreed to set up a Sustainable Transport Coalition. There will be further meetings in January and March.

At a well attended meeting on Monday night, many local groups interested in sustainable transport expressed their anger at being excluded from Swindon Borough Council’s consultation 2030: A Vision for Transport.

A wide range of groups including the WI, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, and the Ramblers were amazed to learn that they had either not been invited to consultation workshops, or had been invited so much later than other groups that they missed the opportunity to input into an influential report produced by Halcrow for the Council. Marc Taylor of the Cyclists’ Touring Club said:

“We are the oldest members transport group in the country and have a lot of expertise to offer but we weren’t invited to the four workshops that informed Halcrow’s report. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that the Council wants to go out to consult more motorists!”

Swindon Climate Action Network member, Gina Adams said:

“We were all thinking the same thing. On the surface the transport vision has laudable goals about promoting sustainable transport and providing alternatives to the car. But when you actually look at the detail, most of the strategies are about catering for ever increasing car traffic, new roads and more car parks. With Swindon’s traffic growing 2.5 times faster than the national average, and predicted to get worse with all these new houses planned, we are concerned that the Council is failing to tackle the problems of congestion, pollution, health and community and climate change.”

“On the bright side”, said Mike Thomas from Cap and Share, “it seems that the consultation is sending the Council a strong message anyway, that Swindon people want more funding for sustainable transport. The Residents Associations, Parish Councils and other groups are asking for less focus on car travel and car parking and more on public transport. This should include dramatically better bus services and incentives for people to use them. Walking and cycling anywhere in town should also be made much easier and all residential and shopping areas should be traffic free or 20mph zones. This can be achieved by diverting funding from proposed road building, which the Council admits will not solve congestion.”

“The Council has spent £70,000 on this consultation and we really hope they listen to what people are saying” said Deb Joffe of Swindon Friends of the Earth. “The time has come to put words into action on climate change. This week the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali is asking policy makers for real action and with all party support for the Climate Change Bill in the UK, we want to work together to put Swindon on the map as one of the best towns for Public Transport in Europe. As a transport town, it’s Swindon’s birthright”.

Notes to Editors:
(1) DFT Figures published in September 2007, show 10.2% increase in vehicle miles travelled in Swindon over 2001-2006, compared with 4.1% across Britain.

For further information contact Gina Adams: 07791 294 709