East London and Greenwich Waterfront Transit

East London and Greenwich Waterfront Transit

Appendix B Transcript of Item 6 – East London and Greenwich Waterfront Transit Geoff Pope (Chair): We move now to the East London and Greenwich Waterfront Transit scrutiny. As you know we have had question and answer sessions with Transport for London and we have also received written evidence from a number of boroughs and we welcome you here today. I believe you are going to be kicking off to summarise in presentation form some of the issues from the boroughs on both of the schemes. We will then be asking questions to try to get complete clarity on what you think is good and what is not good and why and what could be better. Stephen Joseph (Deputy Chief Executive: Strategy, Thames Gateway London Partnership): Thank you very much for inviting us to speak today. Before I introduce our team, I am just going to point to you on our covering slide why that covering slide. It is not a picture of a transit as one might; it is an aerial photograph of the regeneration area in progress. In fact, as you see, because this aerial photograph was taken in 1999, events have moved on. The regeneration agenda is speeding up and one has to look at this proposal as part of that process. Indeed, if you look very carefully, ExCel is not on this map and clearly it is part of the regeneration agenda. In fact, they are hosting, with the Mayor, our annual supper next week, so that regeneration bit exists. Other bits of regeneration are moving along very quickly. The team that we have today to answer your questions and make a short presentation is Peter Morley, just sitting to my left; Dr Alan Brett, who is one of the UK’s leading consultants on rapid transits; just after that I will introduce John Allen who is not actually part of our team, but we obviously do a lot of work in collaboration and have a lot of cross-board membership and Dave Higham of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, Dave Jessup of Greenwich, Richard Hawkins of Bexley and of course, Dominic West from Newham. Thames Gateway London Partnership (TGLP), as many of you will be familiar; we are an organisation that makes up 11 of the East and South East London local authorities. We have very helpfully have had Dartford on our board ever since our foundation and in particular, in relation to this proposal, that link with Dartford has allowed us to look at how they are getting along with their Fastrack proposal and learn from it. I am just going to start a brief presentation. It will take around 15 minutes. Our leading members have asked us to appear here today. We want to explain our views on the Thames Gateway Transit for two reasons, first because we are concerned that TfL’s concept of the Thames Gateway Transit does not appear to be the same as originally promoted and expected by Thames Gateway London Partnership (TGLP) and others and second, there does not seem to be the same open and effective partnership working that we had with TfL when promoting the Thames Gateway Bridge and the transits in the first few years after TfL was established. It appears from TfL’s evidence to your meeting on 8 June that they now consider the transit not as an intermediate mode, separate and distinct from, and in addition to, bus services, but as a frontrunner of enhanced super buses, which can be rolled out across the rest of the bus network in due course. We have been told that there is an internal debate in TfL about what the overall concept and vision of transits should be. Only then will stakeholders, such as the boroughs, be told what it is and that that stance might be changing. We do not think that super buses will do the job and we want something akin to Thameside Fastrack with effective governance arrangements, working in equal partnership with the boroughs, TGLP, GLA regeneration representatives, government regeneration representatives and developers. 1 Transport Committee 07.09.06 Appendix B TGLP’s involvement: the Thames Gateway London Partnership is an alliance of 12 local authorities. We did have the London Development Agency – it was on our board for a while and we very much appreciated their input into our regeneration agenda, five universities, two strategic health authorities and obviously being reconfigured, the East London Learning Skills Council. Our primary aim is to promote sustainable regeneration. In the late 1990s we undertook transport studies and presented our findings to the incoming Mayor to help shape his transport strategy and TfL’s programme. The concept for the Thames Gateway Transits: we can claim with much justification that TGLP stimulated the idea of the Transits being a wide network including East London Transport and Greenwich Waterfront Transit. We saw the proposed intermediate modes programme, with a development of new river crossings, as vital to provide the strategic network needed to underpin the regeneration of the Thames Gateway. Our publication showed that we saw the scheme as providing a step change in quality public transport and in the longer term being extended sub regionally to form an extensive Thames Gateway Transit network, crossing the Thames Gateway Bridge. We made that case to the Mayor and were pleased that he accepted it and promoted it. TGLP expressed concerns to the Mayor later that progress was being rather fragmented. In response, he reiterated his support for our vision and instigated the Thames Gateway Transit leaflet. The slide has some excerpts from that leaflet. It was to be a new, high quality transit system for London Thames Gateway; it would have a key role to play in the regeneration of the London Thames Gateway; it would use the latest, advanced bus based technology and infrastructure improvements to ensure the services are safe, comfortable, reliable, quick and accessible to all; it would be segregated wherever possible thereby offering a reliable, high quality alternative to the use of the private car, which is something buses are not as good at doing as transits can be; also local bus services to be restructured to complement the network as it is developed. That is not necessarily replaced, but restructured. TGLP Board member comments: TGLP concerns were increased when the East London Transit 1a (ELT1a) scheme was passed on for implementation. Our boroughs expressed fears that if the same principles were to be used in future phases, the transits would not represent the step change in quality over bus services that they expect. The details of the proposed scheme for East London Transit Scheme 1a, the choice of vehicle offered, the changes in branding, the weaknesses in explaining the proposal to the public and TfL’s temporary change in the title of the project from transit to bus lanes led TGLP and the boroughs to suspect that this is all part of a change in concept and emphasis by TfL to make the transit simply improved bus services and not the completely new and distinctive system, which could be upgraded to tram, which both TGLP and the Mayor support. In their letter to the Mayor supporting the Thames Gateway Bridge, our leading members drew attention to the way TfL appear to be developing the Transit, and I quote from this letter signed by our Chair, ‘We have concerns though that TfL may not fully share our vision for the transits, but regard them simply as more bus services.’ Our response to TfL on the particular ELT 1a proposal said that they did not constitute a transit of the form we want for future schemes. As evidence showed, upgradeable, tram-like systems, similar to Fastrack would meet our objectives more effectively than the improved bus services that TfL seem to be promoting. We were therefore surprised at the way our views were reported to you by TfL. Our main concern now is that a launch of East London Transit 1a, as part of a future transit network, without clear commitments about future phases, will undermine the transit concept and could be counterproductive. The Thames Gateway Bridge and Boroughs Agreement, which I am sure you are all familiar with: TGLP and the boroughs have long supported the Thames Gateway Bridge and developed with TfL a strong and effective way to work in partnership. This partnership working led to the successful achievements to date in promoting the scheme and taking it through a public enquiry. Boroughs and TGLP were concerned, however, about a possible change of heart by TfL on transits. They, therefore, instituted a 2 Transport Committee 07.09.06 Appendix B public transport clause in the Thames Gateway Bridge and Boroughs Agreement, which is now signed and sealed by TfL and the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Newham and Redbridge. So, there is a legal undertaking on transits as they cross the bridge and form part of that wider network. The agreement makes direct reference to the Thames Gateway Transit leaflet and it is TfL’s duty to review the public transport provision, including the transits, at defined stages. In this way the boroughs have a mechanism for reporting any concerns about the Thames Gateway Bridge and the transits directly to the TfL board annually. The boroughs were concerned; they negotiated that as part of the agreement. Achieving an effective Thames Gateway transit network: the specifications needed. Although trams are our first preference for transits, we recognise that even the express limited stock, tram like concept cannot be introduced easily in all parts of the network, for example in Ilford Lane.

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