T&A, 3 March 2001
MP Chris Leslie is the first to admit that his glossy Aire Valley Public Transport Commission report has no teeth-and, in fact, two year’s work could go in the bin, if people cannot be bothered to read it. But his firm belief now is that the operators and strong stakeholders who took part in the mammoth think-tank will make it happen. It was the first time that the key players in public transport. including the operators, business chiefs, council and organisations - had been brought together to talk it through, work out priorities and try to come up with answers to take traffic from snarled-up roads.
Mr Leslie, MP for Shipley, who set up the commission and chaired it throughout, said today the idea was to plan ahead on how best the district could benefit when the long-awaited Bingley relief road actually opened and the major improvements at Leeds railway station were complete.
Mr Leslie, who raised his concerns about transport systems with leader of the House of Commons Margaret Beckett this week, said: "We want people to turn up and guarantee they can get a reliable public transport service.
"We want a situation where you don’t need a Phd to work out a timetable. We know that Leeds station’s capacity will double and we know the relief road will take traffic from Bingley It is really a stitch in time and to think in advance of how we could take advantage of it.
"It is now the responsibility of all those involved in the commission - transport service providers, public authorities and groups - to work together and develop these ideas into action."
The best start, according to the report, is that Metro, working with the operators and groups representing the passengers, should work together to provide single clear maps showing passengers in Shipley, Bingley, Baildon and Keighley how they can get to Bradford and Leeds.
The maps, which would look like London Underground plans, would be sent to residents, together with literature showing the cost of public transport compared with cars.
Operators are urged to give guaranteed times for services and provide them at very regular intervals. For the first time, Bradford Council is being asked to consider including bus stops in its Unitary Development Plan - a blueprint giving planning guidance for the next five years. Commission members said several gaps in the bus and train services needed filling, including a connection to Shipley railway station.
They say Sunday bus services in Saltaire are not spaced properly late night "entertainment" services into Bradford need improving and shopping "hopper" buses into valley-side villages are infrequent.
Sunday trains are said to be too limited on the Airedale line, particularly early in the morning. But one of the main problems picked up by the commission was that even if people wanted to use the trains, they couldn’t get to the station because there were no buses. Similarly there weren’t always good bus services in areas not served by railway stations.
The commission urges the independent operators to get together to tackle the problem - and even use through-ticketing to help the passengers. Today First Bradford Operations Director Khadim Hussain said: "There is no reason why buses and trains cannot complement each other and we would be prepared to look at it."
But he said they had to think of the Competition Act when they were thinking of through-ticketing schemes.
Turning to Bingley, members recommend that when the Aim Valley Trunk road materialised restrictions would be necessary at both ends of Bingley, indicating to drivers that the best way was NOT through the town.
The commission recommends bus lanes and lay-bys, possible speed reductions and big environmental improvements focusing on pedestrians. Today the commission report was welcomed by Counclllor John Prestage, chairman of Bradford Passenger Consultative Committee.
But Coun Prestage, who lives at Sandbeds, near Keighley, and uses public transport, said he was concerned shops would be hit if cars had restricted access to Bingley.
Councillor Ann Ozolins, a member of the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority said: "I think it is absolutely essential that the train and bus operators should work together. It’s chaos at th moment."
Councillor Latif Darr, Bradford Council’s Labour transport spokesman called for more widespread green transport schemes by employers and schools Bradford Lord Mayor Coundillor Stanley King also gave full marks to the bid to get integrated bus and train services.
But he said: "It is going to be a very complicated and expensive process. To work properly it is going to have to work like clockwork."
But the report has come under fire from Shipley’s prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate David Senior.
He said: "This is a typical, glossy New Labour pre-election document, full of self-congratulation, vague aspirations and recycled plans from the early 1990s."
He said it did not commit the transport operators to provide a single extra bus or train and would not deflect public anger that after a three-year delay on the relief road the contract had still not been placed Mr Senior said he believed it was a party-political exercise because the authors included two Labour MPs and two former Labour coundlllors. He said the two Conservative Bingley ward councillors had not been included and the Better Bingley campaign had not been involved.
Conservative Bingley ward councillor Robin Owens said he had let Mr Leslie know he was interested but -had not received a copy of the report or been invited to the launch.
But Mr Leslie strongly denied the project was party political and said he was disappointed if people were trying to score points after a lot of hard work by many people.
He said: "I chaired it but it was to get the technical people there together like the council, Metro, rail companies and lots of other people."
The Commission says attention to safety and a crackdown on vandalism against trains and buses must be a top priority. The commission welcomes improvements to rail safety, including proposals to install train protection and warning signs to all trains by 2004. It also welcomes line-side fencing and the previous use of a helicopter to reduce vandalism and trespassing. Bus operators told the commission they had problems with vandalism and were using onboard video cameras to identify culprits and act as a deterrent. They believed the use of hale and ride buses at night would remove the fears of people using and waiting for buses in the evenings.
The operators told the commission that confidential reporting systems for staff were being introduced.
The commission recommends that public transport authorities should have joint pricing agreements with innovative discount.
The commission concludes that Metro, Bradford Health Authority and Bradford Council have an important role in coordinating information, spreading good practice and developing green travel plans with employers and schools.
It says parking charges should be considered by companies and there should be a more flexible approach to working hours in a bid to alleviate peak time congestion.
The use of cycles along the canal towpath and improved cycle lanes are also recommended in the report.
The public should be able to have confidence that the services they are waiting for will run on time.
There should be a local timetable guarantee and the services should be marketed in sharp, clear terms.
The guarantee should apply to the main routes through the key centres in the valley. The timetable guarantees should go to all households and there should be digital display information at bus stops and stations.
Transport chiefs say people are suffering "pain for gain" as work on the district’s first £9 million guided bus lane causes major traffic congestion. When the scheme is completed by the end of the year super buses will travel down the centre of stretches of Manchester Road with wheels locking into the special tracks.
First Bradford, Bradford Council and Metro, working in partnership on the scheme are confident it will eventually ease traffic jams on one of Bradford’s most congested roads and give passengers a quiet, clean and fast journey.
A First Bradford spokesman said today the scheme was on target and full information was being sent out to the public as the scheme progressed. The company has already bought £10 million ot new buses this year and launched the district’s first "overground service" running frequently in and out of the city like the London underground. The shabby Interchange travel centre has also been upgraded In a £2.7 million scheme resulting In a new upper concourse. On the rail scene Northern Spirit brought in 16 super trains at a cost of £60 million to replace its 3&year-old rolling stock.
T&A Editorial
It is rather disappointing that after two years’ work, the "big idea" produced by the Aire Valley Public Transport Commission is a rather old idea: the I need for an integrated transport policy with the bus and train operators working together to provide the district with an efficient, comprehensive service.
That is a dream which people concerned about the local environment and economy have talked about for several years. However, it is a worthy aim, and the commission’s report is right to restate it.
The roads along the Aire Valley are badly congested, particularly on weekdays. Something needs to be done to woo cornmuters out of their cars and on to public j transport. Even when the Bingley relief road is constructed to take the pressure off the town, hold-ups and frustrations will remain.
Unfortunately recent events have conspired to do the reverse. Travellers have repeatedly found that their trains have been cancelled and they have been transferred on to buses. This is not the sort of integrated transport policy that anyone one wants. Small wonder commuters have been returning to their cars in large numbers.
The report puts its finger on several areas where things have gone wrong. There are inadequate bus links between the places where people live and the railway stations. Areas not served by the rail-ways are too often poorly catered for by buses. Sunday rail services are too limited.
The report highlights the weaknesses in the present system. What is needed now is an ongoing effort to find ways of generating the will to start putting things right.