Manchester marches ahead in TIF bid

Publication of the Local Transport Bill paves the way for Manchester to realise its long-held ambition to create an all-embracing ‘Transport for Greater Manchester’.
The city is leading the way on reform of city-region transport with well-developed plans to take advantage of the main strands of the bill--bus partnerships, governance and congestion charging.
The main area of uncertainty and controversy is the congestion charge, on which the whole package depends. Support among the surrounding boroughs – members of the Passenger Transport Authority – is finely balanced. Opponents of the charge have collected enough signatures to force a referendum in one borough and are planning to do the same in others.
David Leather, acting chief executive of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, told Transport Times last week that this was “not helpful” when the authorities were in the process of exploring with the DfT what sort of package it would approve. There would be full consultation with the public and the business community once the DfT’s response was received. He noted that in focus groups earlier this year, people’s views of the package became more favourable once they understood the extent of public transport improvements, the fact that the congestion charge would only apply at peak times, and the implications of letting congestion grow unchecked.
Independent observers say that Manchester’s ambitious plans look realisable. The central plank is Manchester’s £2.95bn Transport Innovation Fund bid, submitted to the government this summer (TT 25 May). A response is expected early in the New Year. Last week Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority and Manchester Cityco opened a consultation on a new regional centre transport strategy with proposals designed to dovetail with the TIF plans.
Proposals include rail improvements including an addition 80-90 carriages, longer platforms, better passenger information and station improvements, and improved interchanges at Victoria, Salford Central and Oxford Road. For buses a more frequent and reliable network is proposed. Routes will be rationalised and interchanges improved, with proposals for cross-city services and good quality bus transit services on key commuter routes. This will be underpinned by “a new partnership with bus operators… taking joint working to a new level”.
A new approach to traffic management is aimed at improving the environment by reducing the impact of through traffic on the city centre. Separately, in October Network Rail was given funding for a feasibility study into the Manchester rail hub project to remove serious and long-standing bottlenecks affecting rail services throughout the North West.
The TIF bid proposes a congestion charge based on two rings operating at peak hours, with charges set so that a round trip into the city centre and out again at peak times would cost £5. Revenue from the charge would finance borrowing of £1.35bn over 20 years towards the package of transport improvements, which would be completed before the charging scheme was introduced. Earlier this year the Greater Manchester Bus Operators Association backed the TIF bid, proposing a strategic partnership with the PTA and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities “underpinned by binding agreements and a formal commitment to work together to achieve common objectives”. GMBOA said it believed “this approach will make a major contribution to the TIF bid as it supports the requirement to deliver a truly integrated and improved public transport network for Greater Manchester”.
Mr Leather said he was pleased with the progress so far: “We’re working very productively with the major bus operators towards development of a partnership agreement.” He added: “There’s a large amount of detailed work still to do, not least because we’re looking at what an appropriate bus network in a possible charging scenario would look like, with an increase in the amount of public transport – not just new public transport but integrated transport.”
The Manchester authorities want integrated ticketing, preferably a smartcard system, across all modes and operators. “Very constructive discussions” are taking place on the capping of fares, the frequency of services and implications for the shape of the network, said Mr Leather. The bus operators have appointed their own consultant to help develop their ideas on the network, while the PTE has a technical team working on the issue.
Speaking following publication of the Greater Manchester Bus Operators Association’s document Moving Greater Manchester Forward, GMBOA chair and Stagecoach Manchester managing director Mark Threapleton said that he envisaged agreement on fares being ‘part of a final deal’, assuming that a successful congestion charging regime led to a growing market for public transport. He added that: “If the authorities want a first class bus transport system to complement the introduction of charging, they must give us a first class road network with comprehensive and well-enforced bys priority.”
On rail, Mr Leather said that in view of the TIF proposals for extra rolling stock and platform lengthening, the authorities wanted “greater influence” over rail services, including bringing rail within an integrated ticketing regime. On governance the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities has also indicated that administrative reform is crucial: “We are clear that the scale of ambition in our TIF proposals needs to be matched by a wide-ranging and radical reform of our existing policymaking and delivery structures… we envisage that the Local Transport Bill should be a facilitator of many of these changes”.
The plans would reform the AGMA executive into a city region executive board with a “robust strategy framework” and a sharper focus. A strategic transport commissioning body with representatives from the private as well as the public sector would be set up as an effective policy-making body, reporting to the board. GMPTE would become a “strengthened delivery agency”, while corridor partnerships involving the relevant local councils would allow strategic initiatives such as bus priority agreed at board level to be implemented.
“We require a much more effective mechanism towards that sort of initiative than we have at the moment,”, notedMr Leather. A wholesale transfer of highway powers to the central organisation is not necessary, he said, pointing out that Transport for London is able to put in place red routes and strategic priority without comprehensive powers. He added: “A good thing about the bill is that it allows us to develop the governance structures that will work best for Greater Manchester.