March 2002
Trams for Bath has been looking into access to the Hospitals site for some time and has identified a number of key factors which must be born in mind when considering possible transport solutions.
1 THE CASE FOR A PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK
2 GROUPS OF PEOPLE NEEDING ACCESS
3 MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
4 REALISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
5 BUILT-IN ADVANTAGES
6 SAFETY AND CONVENIENCE
7 GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
8 EUROPEAN FUNDING
9 LOCAL FINANCIAL SUPPORT
10 THE WAY FORWARD
1 THE CASE FOR A PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK
There is a pressing need to reduce car parking requirements on the Royal United Hospital site. Precious land has been wasted by parking facilities and access roads, which is now required for expansion of the hospital's prime function. The facilities for access on this site are already inadequate and, if parking is to be reduced still further in future, substantial improvements public transport will be essential for improving accessibility.
The concept of providing one bus corridor to a single Park + Ride site merely shifts the access problem to another area. It fails to improve links with other public transport modes and it has the potential to create a situation whereby Bath residents drive to the outskirts in order to get transport back in again - some may even travel past the hospital in order to do so.
A good public transport network can overcome these difficulties but it must be of the highest quality, maintained at a standard where it becomes an acceptable alternative to the car for those groups of people who will need to use it.
2 GROUPS OF PEOPLE NEEDING ACCESS
a) Medical and Nursing and Ancillary staff - Need transport throughout most of the 24 hour period. Many are female and feel vulnerable using public transport
b) Administrative staff - Tend to work office hours and need to travel during busy congested periods
c) Patients - Span a wide range of mobility; but even relatively mobile patients need to avoid stress by unsuitable transport. Valuable hospital resources are wasted by out-patients delayed by poor transport.
d) Visitors - Include a higher proportion of elderly, frail or mobility-impaired people than in the average population. Often unfamiliar with the area and its local transport arrangements
e) Delivery and Service workers - Carry goods and tools. These are the only group which cannot be expected to switch a significant proportion of their journeys to public transport.
The current modes of public transport do not address the majority
these needs and consequently fail to attract people away from
car use. Small improvements in public transport are unlikely to
make any worthwhile change to this situation.
Experience in Bristol shows that a tenfold increase in bus services
resulted in only a threefold increase in public transport uptake.
[ Hass Klau et al - Bus or Light Rail: Making the Right
Choice]
3 MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
A massive improvement in public transport quality will be needed before the requirements of these groups can be met in a way which makes it a viable alternative to the private car. As a basic minimum, the following requirements must be met by public transport, in full, on a regular day-to-day basis:
* Reliable service with reserves in case of failure
* Frequent service, less than 10 minutes waiting at any time throughout the working day,
* Extended service, starting early in the morning and continuing until late at night
* Direct connection with rail and country bus services
* Easy interchange with services to all areas of Bath without the need to walk long distances
* Easy connection to all Park + Ride sites
* All vehicles with stepless boarding at all points on the system. Accessible for people with impaired mobility (including wheelchair users) without having to deploy special boarding equipment
* Smooth riding characteristics without jolting, vibration or sudden changes of speed and direction
It would also be highly desirable to have some additional attributes which would enable the vehicles to operate inside buildings, so that passengers could wait indoors:
* Emission free
* Quiet in operation
4 REALISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
There appears to be little likelihood of achieving even these minimum standards by means of a conventional bus service. Many expensive enhancements would be needed and the cost of operation would be high.
Whilst there are claims that a technologically advanced bus-based system might achieve some or even most of these requirements, the extra operating costs of such a system would not be met from the fare box and it would require a heavy subsidy. Furthermore, the short operating life of bus-type vehicles and their toll on existing road surfaces would impose a continual drain on resources in order to prevent deterioration of the equipment and infrastructure after a relatively short period of operation.
However, the requirements set out above are regarded as normal conditions for a tram network; indeed the requirements for access are enshrined in law and no tramway may open without fulfilling them. In practical terms, a properly designed modern tramway network in Bath would give the maximum opportunity to every type of hospital staff and visitor to reduce car use and travel by public transport.
5 BUILT-IN ADVANTAGES
The high fixed costs of a tramway, combined with relatively low operating and maintenance costs, automatically give a number of advantages.
a) Permanence - Trams and tramways typically are designed for lives of 50 years or more. Many personal lifestyle decisions are influenced by the availability of permanent transport links and a certain level of trust in public transport is necessary before changes in travel habits can be made. The perception of bus routes as transient facilities, subject to withdrawal or change with little notice, is not conducive to that trust - whereas the permanence of tram routes is a very positive influential factor.
b) Service frequency - The economical way to operate a service with high fixed costs and low running costs is to wring as much utility as possible out of the expensive equipment. In the case of a tramway, this means that a large number of vehicles can be economically deployed in service at most times of day, giving a frequent service.
c) Operating hours - The low operating cost also means that the point at which passenger numbers are no longer high enough to justify operation of a service will occur much later in the evening. When operation is continued into the late evening, this in turn means that more passengers will travel by public transport earlier in the evening because they are assured of being able to get home again. By the same reasoning, early morning operation is also a feature of tramways.
The combination of early and late operating hours is an important factor when asking staff on shifts to consider using public transport.
6 SAFETY AND CONVENIENCE
Staff and visitors contemplating using public transport will be strongly influenced by considerations of convenience at any time of the day and by perceived and actual safety, particularly during the hours of darkness.
During the construction of a tramway, various ductwork must be laid down beside the track to take supply and control cables to remote parts of the system. Spare duct space then allows the incorporation of enhanced communication facilities at minimal extra cost; making such features as Closed Circuit Television Cameras, Vehicle Tracking and Passenger Information Displays a normal part of every modern tramway. With a bus-based system, these become expensive extras which are often omitted
In public transport, some degree of waiting is unavoidable but these standard facilities on tramways allow the stress of the experience to be reduced to the lowest possible level. The vehicles' positions are known to a central control facility, which allows reliable predictions of the arrival time of the next vehicle to be communicated to the passenger. The CCTV gives confidence to the intending passenger that they are waiting in a safe area.
At the Hospitals, there is no reason why passengers should not wait inside a building which the tram can enter. Being fume-free and quiet, the tramway can run through or adjacent to buildings without disturbing the occupants.
On board the vehicles, many modern tramway systems still use conductors. This is not a hangover from the past, but is made economically possible by the extra revenue-earning capability of a tram compared with a bus. With a conductor to help passengers board and alight and to relieve the driver of fare collection and ticket checking (which would delay the service), the tram is capable of giving a much better service than a comparably-sized bus.
The presence of a conductor does much to engender confidence and safety, particularly for elderly or unwell patients and visitors, who may feel unsure of their destinations and the conventions of public transport. On late night and early morning services, the presence of a conductor is an important factor for the security of staff who might otherwise feel vulnerable travelling to and from work on public transport.
7 GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
The Government is currently expressing support for public transport improvements and is particularly willing to offer financial inducement to well thought-out proposals based on certain modes:
a) Guided bus - This is a system whereby an adapted conventional bus is run along a guideway for part of its course, then circulates around ordinary roads to collect and deliver passengers. It is difficult to point to any example of this technology currently showing long-term success and Government funding appears to be offered in an attempt to get a project running which can be used to assess the potential of the system.
Such a system has no advantages for Bath and, even in Adelaide,
where there are ideal conditions of sprawling suburbs at a distance
from the city centre, the guided bus system has experienced a
30% reduction in passenger numbers over the last decade.
b) Tramways - The 2001 Select Committee Report on tramways confirmed to the Government that tramways are capable of enhancing public transport and reducing car use in a way which no other mode even approaches. The outstanding success of Croydon Tramlink has also demonstrated beyond doubt what a well-planned tramway can achieve: Currently 25% of Tramlink passenger have the option of using a car for their journey but have chosen to use the tram in preference. The only major aspect of the Croydon system which might make it unsuitable for Bath is the size of the vehicles. If trams are to operate in Bath, they must be scaled appropriately to suit the city.
8 EUROPEAN FUNDING
It is more than 50 years since tramways were built in Britain on the smaller scale appropriate to Bath, and to construct one nowadays could be regarded as an experimental project even though the technology itself is well proven. In particular, the assessment of the effects of such tramway as a whole network rather than a series of corridors, would be an innovative public transport project.
European money is not available for actual construction projects but it is available for innovative research into public transport improvements. A grant for this type of research could be justified on the grounds that its results will be applicable to a large number of other smaller tramway projects now springing up across the country. In Bath, this research project could be used to produce exactly the 'properly thought-out' proposal that the Government has expressed its willingness to fund.
Further European money would then become more readily available
for regeneration schemes associated with the tramway development
and for such ancillary items as Park + Ride sites
[Wednesbury P+R, West Midlands]
9 LOCAL FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Currently the B&NES Local Transport Plan is failing to attract the desired level of support from Central Government. It shows a strong vision for the desirable transport attributes of the region, but the strategy of a practical over-arching plan with coherent and relevant supporting components is missing.
The tramway could form a core strategy which would fulfil many of the aspects of the current LTP 'wish list'. With support from local developments, many of which have been delayed by lack of proper transport planning for several years, a practical strategic LTP could be submitted which would attract Government funding. For the small initial cost of re-writing the LTP to include a tramway, B&NES would then open up a pathway to major European and Central Government support.
Far from taking away Local Government money, a modern tram network would be an ideal lever to bring large amounts of external funding into the area - not just for trams but for many other associated public projects.
10 THE WAY FORWARD
If we are seriously determined to reduce car dependence at the RUH, we must abandon the hope that simplistic short term piecemeal measures, such as reducing the number of parking places, will be sufficient. There is already ample evidence that such measures have not worked - and to continue with them will simply create more problems.
The need to look into a long-term solution is now urgent.
We believe the Scrutiny Panel should advise B&NES Council to:
1) Acknowledge that car dependence will not be significantly reduced by a public transport system which fails to provide a real alternative to the private car
2) Incorporate a tramway network study in the Local Transport Plan
3) Explore the possibility of E.U. funding for further public transport network studies
We believe that the RUH Trust should:
1) Make provision for a tram corridor through the site
2) Ensure that at least one building on this corridor is suitable for use as an indoor tramway boarding and alighting area by making provision for the trams to enter the building
[ The term 'Tramway' has been used throughout this document to mean a public transport system operated by electrically-powered, rail-guided vehicles. The use of the term 'LRT' has been avoided because it is misleading (sometimes deliberately so) It does not distinguish between 'Light Rail Transit' - a tram, and 'Light Rapid Transit' - a busway. It is vitally important that these two are not confused, because their characteristics are significantly different and a misunderstanding at this stage could have a disastrous outcome.]