Transforming Norwich Strategic Outline Business Case 2 Strategic Case We want Norwich to be a city where residents, employees and visitors choose to travel by clean and shared transport modes. The ‘Transforming Norwich’ programme offers the opportunity to deliver this step-change in mobility through investment in transport that will enhance access to employment and learning; creating a healthier city, with increasing social mobility and economic growth. 2.1 Introduction This chapter outlines the Strategic Case for the ‘Transforming Norwich’ programme. It sets out the key challenges faced in Norwich and the case for much-needed investment in sustainable transport. Additionally, this chapter summarises how the programme will contribute towards the wider national, regional and more local policy objectives. The Strategic Case is presented, as follows: • Section 2.2 – Summary of Strategic Case • Section 2.3 – The Greater Norwich Region • Section 2.4 – The Need for Investment – Overall Summary • Section 2.5 – The Need for Investment – Detailed Analysis • Section 2.6 – Our Vision and Objectives • Section 2.7 – Developing the ‘Transforming Norwich’ Programme • Section 2.8 – The ‘Transforming Norwich’ Programme • Section 2.9 – Strategic Fit • Section 2.10 – Strategic Benefits and Impacts • Section 2.11 – Overall Summary of the Strategic Case This strategic context has been critical to shaping the development of the ‘Transforming Norwich’ programme. At an early stage of preparing our programme, we prepared a Logic Map, setting out the objectives, challenges, inputs, outputs, outcomes and impacts. We shared this with colleagues at the Department for Transport (DfT) at an early stage and have used this throughout the development of our programme. Our Logic Map can be found in Figure 2. 12 Transforming Norwich Strategic Outline Business Case 2.2 Summary of the Strategic Case Norwich is the heart of our regional economy with a work-day population of 280,000, is part of the Fast Growth Cities network (Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Oxford and Swindon) and is identified as a priority place in the East of England for economic development. However, as our fine city grows, a key challenge is unlocking employment and training opportunities and increasing productivity as travel patterns become more dispersed and new developments are harder to connect. The most pressing transport challenges we face are: • Congestion on our radial transport corridors and in the city centre means bus operators are currently investing simply to stand still because extra buses maintain rather than boost services; • Buses have insufficient priority on main corridors and although there is a comprehensive bus network, there is the local perception of buses being slow, unreliable and expensive; • Although bus patronage is growing, this will plateau without significant investment by bus companies, which is dependent on rigorous application of bus priority, including separate space for cycling and the creation of mobility hubs as the places where people can access shared transport services. Park & Ride is not being used to its full potential and is struggling to grow patronage; • Walking connections in part of the Greater Norwich Region (GNR), such as the East Norwich Regeneration Area, are blighted by traffic; • Congestion and a reliance on fossil fuels causes poor air quality, with the city centre designated an Air Quality Management Area; • Key employment centres, such as the Airport Industrial Estate, the Enterprise Zone at Norwich Research Park (NRP) and Broadland Business Park and residential areas in the GNR, are not well connected by bus and rail services; • Norwich has been designated by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission as being a social mobility ‘coldspot’, where it is hard for people from deprived neighbourhoods to access employment and training. Better accessibility to key employment centres and training is essential to harness their talent as part of extending the labour market available to businesses to unlock economic growth potential; • In the morning peak, 85% of vehicles on the main radial roads are single occupancy. This use of the highway network is inefficient and delays the movement of goods and people in and around the city. We are confident that the case for change in Norwich is strong. 14 Transforming Norwich Strategic Outline Business Case Our solution Our ‘Transforming Norwich’ programme recognises that shaping a future of clean and shared mobility requires large, sustained and targeted investment in public transport, cycling and walking infrastructure to make these modes more competitive than single-occupancy vehicle use in terms of time, cost and convenience. Our programme will invest in six clean transport priority corridors, in addition to the city centre, that will deliver the maximum impact in terms of: • improving people’s productivity and social mobility by unlocking access to employment and education opportunities across the city region; • increasing the efficiency of travel and transport and improve the impact transport has on carbon emissions, air quality and public health; • using emerging technology to prepare the city region for a future of shared and clean mobility. We are investing in corridors because our transport network in Norwich radiates out from the historic city centre in a hub and spoke arrangement, which has been in place over a considerable time and is the basis on which the current transport network has developed. Some corridors are more developed than others in terms of the provision of bus priority and walking / cycling infrastructure and all have different characteristics in terms of factors such as deprivation, employment, education, demographics, as well as travel behaviours and network usage. The development of our ‘Transforming Norwich’ programme has considered which schemes and corridors will deliver the maximum impact within the timescales of the TCF. Our vision is: “to invest in clean and shared transport, creating a healthy environment, increasing social mobility and boosting productivity through enhanced access to employment and learning” Central to delivering this vision has been close partnership working between the County Council, District Councils, Councillors, transport operators / providers, stakeholders, delivery partners and feedback from the public. Through this, we have generated a large evidence base of travel patterns and demand, as well as network performance, which has highlighted areas of particular stress where infrastructure improvements will have the greatest impact. Reallocation of road space to buses, cycling and walking features strongly throughout our programme and delivering this through our ‘Transforming Norwich’ programme is the first stage in implementing a much longer-term Transport for Norwich strategy. 15 Transforming Norwich Strategic Outline Business Case We will make this happen through three linked approaches: • Transforming the bus network • Transforming the city centre • Transforming the passenger experience Transforming the bus network Transforming the transport network will be achieved by creating six clean transport priority corridors that link key transport hubs (rail station, bus station, airport and mobility hubs), economic growth areas, existing and new homes and educational provision across the GNR. Originally, three corridors were proposed but dividing the three corridors into six radial priority corridors provides the opportunity for more granular appraisal of individual corridors and scheme elements, greater flexibility for bus operators and the wider programme, and the ability to deliver the programme more coherently and with less disruption. On these clean transport priority corridors, we will: • Promote cleaner vehicle technology through a mixture of zero emission and EURO VI buses on Park & Ride services and the most frequent services with a minimum EURO V emission standard on all corridors; • Provide a minimum 8-minute daytime service frequency on key corridors, timetable co-ordination between operators and more evening and weekend services; • Support Park & Ride and other express bus services stopping at mobility hubs and increase capacity of our Park & Ride network; • Provide dedicated bus priority measures along the clean transport priority corridors and through congested traffic junctions, linking areas of housing development, growth and deprivation with employment and training; • Provide direct, low-carbon bus corridors into the city centre for residents of the UK’s largest urban extension (Broadland Growth Triangle); • Prioritise buses and cycling to ensure shared and clean modes are competitive with the private car; • Introduce Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) to more effectively manage rainwater on highway and mobility hub schemes; • Promote shared transport interventions through a sustained and co-ordinated behaviour change programme to reduce single-vehicle occupancy. 16 Transforming Norwich Strategic Outline Business Case Transforming the city centre Transforming the city centre will be achieved through: • Delivering a step-change in the quality of infrastructure that supports public transport, walking and cycling in the city centre; • Redesigning bus stops so that buses can easily access and vacate bus stops without holding each other up and causing unnecessary delay and pollution, ensuring easy access on and off buses for passengers of all abilities; • Improving walking connections within the city centre to improve access