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Call for 30-year transport plan

Experts are calling for a 30-year plan to overcome the “paralysis” blighting the North East’s transport network and to avoid major economy-damaging problems, in a report issued this week by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

Lack of investment and lengthy delays to planning decisions are all cited as causes for concern in the report by the ICE’s North East region. The report also calls for a 30-year strategy to ensure that improvements are delivered in a timely fashion to provide wider benefits to the region.

The report highlights several major challenges, including:

• Growing demand - leading to trains running near to capacity and severe traffic congestion on the roads
• Lack of investment - leading to a lack of realistic alternatives other than using the private car to move around the region
• Lack of long term planning - absence of a long term strategy, to be delivered in 5 to 10 year phases, means that the networks are not responding to changing public need at a pace that is required

Steve Mackay, chairman of the expert panel on transport, who helped compile the report, said: “The regional report focuses on the immediate problems facing the North East’s transport infrastructure. It is now time that we do something about it - for too long there has been inaction.”

Across the region, the rail network is increasingly relied upon by industry and commuters. Despite the North East being the birthplace of the world’s first passenger rail line, the report warns that the region’s rail network must improve if it is to deliver wider economic benefits.

Jonathan Spruce, member of the ICE expert panel, said: “What we need is better public transport services that are affordable to the general public and comparable in terms of cost against the private car. We need to do that by providing more regular, frequent, reliable, and comfortable services, with real time information to improve the public’s perception of the service.”

The ICE State of the nation report is available to download from the organisation’s website - www.ice-northeast.org.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .