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WEST LONDON TRANSIT SCHEME - THE STORY SO FAR A
summary of the published documents relating
to this scheme with comments from the Save
Ealing's Streets Campaign
On 29 May, Ken Livingstone announced that he was giving the go ahead for the West London Tram scheme. Over the next year Transport for London and Ealing Council will work on the detailed proposals which the are expected to be put out for consultation in summer 2003. The purpose of this document is to set out what has been said so far by Transport for London and Ealing Council to give an indication of the kind of options which may be under consideration. For each document we have briefly summarised the key points and then given the full text which has been cut and pasted from the relevant official documents. 1. 'Uxbridge Road Transit - Summary Report' October 2000 Transport for London i) Overview Transport for London's priority is to clear road space for the tram. To justify spending £200 m on it, they want it to be as unimpeded by traffic as possible. The document we have from them is 'Uxbridge Road Transit - Summary Report' published by Transport for London in October 2000. [It is posted on the TfL website - www.transportforlondon.gov.uk - go to the About Us, then to Report Library] Basically it says that the key factor in securing the tram is the need to ensure it has separate lanes from other traffic, so there would need to be room for 4 lanes - 2 for the tram and 2 for other traffic. It identifies 6 hotspots along the route where the road width wouldn't allow for this - Shepherd's Bush, Acton High Street, Ealing Broadway, Hanwell Bridge, Southall, and Uxbridge Town Centre. For each of these it proposes alternative solutions to the problem. It makes clear that the political commitment of the affected local authorities in overriding local opposition to ensure the tram gets its own road space is crucial to the success of the scheme. ii) Extracts from the document a. On the importance of reallocating road space and the political commitment of the local authorities (from the foreword): "A
major factor in deciding to carry out a detailed
feasibility study for Uxbridge Road Transit
has been the commitment shown by the affected
Local Authorities Hammersmith & Fulham,
Ealing and Hillingdon - to assist in the development
of the project, and in particular their willingness A major objective of this exercise has been to identify in detail, the traffic management measures that would be required to allow Uxbridge Road Transit to have a high level of priority over other traffic and which would be sufficient to shift modal choice substantially towards public transport, particularly from the private car. It
is our view that the securing of this priority
would be the most important factor in determining
the success of Uxbridge Road Transit. Although
we recognise that the traffic management measures
required to secure this priority are likely
to generate considerable debate within the b. On the need for 4 lanes and identification of the hot spots ( p15): "Although
the study adopted an open mind on the kind
of technology assumed to operate in the corridor,
from the outset it was recognised that there
were sections of the Uxbridge Road where there
would be problems with introducing a fully
segregated route within the existing A
total of six hot spots were identified where
the highway width would be inadequate to accommodate
two lanes for Transit and two lanes for other
road users and where some form of sharing either
in time or space, would be necessary. The provision
of these four lanes would require a minimum
highway width of around 13.3 metres between
kerbs or 17.3m
As well as the six hot spots identified above, work was also carried out to establish how Transit would achieve priority through the complex and busy road junction at Iron Bridge. The
range of approaches considered in overcoming
these hotspots
"The
study has assumed that if a feasible solution
could be identified for each of the hot spots,
then remaining sections of route would not
present any insurmountable difficulties. These
other sections of route have therefore been
developed in only enough detail to enable reliable
Description of route through hot spots Shepherd's Bush Transit
would run in both directions on the north side
of Shepherd's Bush Green. Other traffic, apart
from buses and local access traffic, would
be diverted either round the south side of
the Green or on a new route via Arial Way,
constructed as part of the new White City development. West
of the Green,Transit would negotiate a narrow
section of the Uxbridge Road and serve a stop
with staggered platforms just west of the Hammersmith
and City Line station. For the section of route
as far as Bloemfontein Road, Uxbridge Road
would be restricted to westbound Acton High Street Since
Acton High Street is only 8m wide, the only
realistic way that Transit could secure adequate
priority would be to close the road to all
vehicles, apart from Transit and buses. This
would be achieved just west of the junction
with Market Place and Church Road where all
traffic apart from Transit and buses would
be prohibited from driving between the two
Transit platforms. Access to Uxbridge Road
would be maintained however for parking and
servicing and specially designated routes would
be signed to route vehicles to and from parking/servicing
spaces alongside the Transit route. A survey
of the route revealed there would be substantial
At
Ealing Broadway,Transit and westbound traffic
only would use the Uxbridge Road while eastbound
traffic could be diverted via St Leonard's
Rd, Carlton Road, Castlebar Rd, Haven Green
and Madeley Road. An option to permit some
eastbound traffic to be retained by sharing A further option would be to also exclude westbound traffic from the Broadway and provide a diversionary route via The Common, The Grove (alternatively Grange Road) and Mattock Lane. However, the impact on these residential streets would need to be considered carefully and would only be likely to be acceptable if the diverted traffic were limited to local traffic. The pavements within the Broadway would be widened to enable the environment for pedestrians to be improved. In addition, proposals are being developed independently of the Transit study to dramatically improve he interchange and pedestrian environment at Ealing Broadway Station. These proposals may also have a substantial impact on through-traffic passing the front of the station. Transit
in both directions would serve stops located
opposite The Broadway which would minimise
the walking distance to Ealing Broadway Station
as Hanwell Bridge At Hanwell Bridge additional road space would be created by constructing a new bridge over the River Brent on the south side of the existing bridge. An alternative would be to relocate the pavements onto a footbridge. Westbound traffic would be diverted via Boston Road and Lower Boston Road enabling the Uxbridge Road to be restricted to Transit and eastbound traffic only. West of Hanwell Bridge, alongside Ealing Hospital, Transit would take over the present-day westbound side of the dual carriageway. Iron Bridge At
Iron Bridge,Transit would be provided with
absolute priority over all other traffic. This
would be achieved by using traffic signals
to hold all other traffic while Transit passed
under the bridge. To reduce the impact on other
traffic and to ease its flow, a traffic management
scheme would be introduced. The existing ban
on all right turns from the Uxbridge Road into
both Windmill Lane from the west and Greenford
Road from the east would be retained. Traffic
from Uxbridge Road requiring to make these
movements would make a "U turn" in
a specially enhanced Southall It is recognised that, because of the limited roadspace available, Southall is one of the most difficult sections of the route to achieve full segregation and priority for Transit. However, a number of options have been developed which would provide varying degrees of priority for Transit. The preferred option assumes the complete closure of the Uxbridge Road to all through-traffic apart from Transit and buses immediately east of the junction with Lady Margaret Road and South Road. Between this point and the junction with Ruskin Road, immediately east of the Grand Union Canal,Transit would be run alongside the pavement on the southside of the carriageway leaving sufficient space for other road traffic on the northside of the road in an eastbound direction only. Eastbound
through-traffic on the Uxbridge Road would
be diverted via Dane Road, Caryle Avenue, Burns
Avenue and Dormers Wells Lane, while westbound
traffic would be diverted via Avenue Road,
Cambridge Road, South Road, Beaconsfield Road
and Ranelagh Road. Alternatively a Southall
bypass route to provide access to the former
British Gas development site could be used
as a diversionary route for general traffic.
A route for access traffic to the centre of
Southall would be provided from the west in
an eastbound direction only and would leave
the
Uxbridge Town Centre At
the junction of Hillingdon Road and Uxbridge
High Street,Transit would cross the centre
of the roundabout and enter Uxbridge High St
using the centre of the road. Between the roundabout
and the junction with Vine Street,Transit would
share road space with other road users, At
its eastern end,Transit's terminus would be
located adjacent to Shepherd's Bush Central
line station which would be developed as a
major interchange for Underground, National
Rail Network (the West London Line) and bus
services as well as for taxis, cyclists and
pedestrians. At
its western end, the Transit terminus would
be located adjacent to the Uxbridge Underground
station. With the tram option,Transit would
terminate and reverse in an island platform
located immediately in front of the Underground
station. In the case of the trolley bus option,Transit 2. 'Ealing Town centre - A strategy for Sustainable Improvement (Nov 2001)' Ealing Centre Partnership/ Ealing Council i) Overview Significant details were set out in the document 'Ealing Town centre - A strategy for Sustainable Improvement (Nov 2001)'. This is a 70-plus page document - not to be confused with the glossy consultation document of the same name which was issued to a fair number of residents earlier this year. The document spells out the Council's support for the principle of the tram and puts forward an alternative re-routing of traffic. The document appears to come jointly from Ealing Council and the Ealing Centre Partnership (which mainly represents local businesses) - it has both logos on the front. But surprisingly the Council told us that this document does not represent their views on transport re-routing but those of the Partnership. This is particularly puzzling since the document forms the basis of the consultation carried out by the Council earlier this year. So as things stand it is unclear how far the detail in this document reflects the views of Ealing Council, but the thrust of it is consistent with the next document cited (see below) from the council. ii) Extract from the document (p24) "The West London Transit scheme is the most significant public transport proposal for many years and it will have a major impact on the town centre. � The Council supports the principle of this scheme. Transport for London have consulted all households and businesses in the area on the principle of introducing a transit scheme in West London. The results of this consultation, along with the results for the three other schemes in London, will be considered by the Mayor for London early next year. If he decides to press ahead with this proposal he will then need to carry out a detailed design and statutory. A final decision should be made in 2003. To ensure maximum reliability, the Transit vehicle - whether it is a tram, trolley bus or 'bendy bus' - needs to have priority along sections of road. The precise extent of the separation of the transit from general traffic and the implications for general traffic movements has not been fully assessed yet. Transport for London has commissioned studies to assess the detailed alignments for the transit in Ealing Town centre and will also be commissioning traffic models to assess the potential effects of each alignment on the adjacent road network. It is possible that the Uxbridge Road may need to be closed and made one way to general traffic at 3 points in the town centre - in West Ealing, in the office quarter and in Ealing Broadway. This could mean re-routing Uxbridge Road general through traffic on roads north and south of the Uxbridge Road: West
Ealing - onto Leeland Terrace and Singapore
Road
i) Overview Ealing Council have just produced a transport strategy which covers a range of transport issues. The section on the tram makes clear the there is likely to be diversion of traffic away from the Uxbridge Road to ensure the tram has priority where the Uxbridge Road is not wide enough for a separate lane for the tram. The full section on the tram is set out below, with the most relevant sections in bold. [Note much of this is about a supposedly favourable response to the consultation. See separate not by Save Ealing Streets which shows how this is seriously misleading.] ii) Extracts from the document: 2.5 West London Transit On 28th May 2002 Transport for London announced that, following the satisfactory outcome of public consultation showing a high level of support for West London Transit, further work on the "maximum priority" Tram option on Uxbridge Road from Shepherds Bush to Uxbridge would commence. A great deal of further work remains to be done, but the major characteristics of the tram scheme are the high level of public transport priority offered, together with off-vehicle ticketing to speed up boarding, improved shelters and seating and electronic journey planners to complement the 'Countdown' type real-time information. There will be fewer stops to speed up the service, as the Tram could achieve an average of 14 mph overall end-to-end between Uxbridge and Shepherds Bush compared to 8 mph on service 207 and 11 mph on the 607 (express bus service) at present. As outlined above, in late 2001 Transport for London, in partnership with the boroughs, issued a consultation document to all households and businesses across the borough. This sought views on whether there was support for a transit scheme, the form of technology and whether people would be likely to transfer out of their cars if such a system was introduced on the Uxbridge Road. The key results from Ealing are as follows:
The Council considered these results at its Cabinet meeting in February 2002 and officially set out its enthusiastic support for West London Transit and its preference for a tram system. Consultants have estimated that the tram option could lead to up to 7,350 extra public transport trips and nearly 5,000 fewer car trips on the Uxbridge Road in the morning peak period alone. In economic terms the tram option has a favourable cost/benefit ratio based on a high level of transfer of people from car to transit. The calculations assume some disbenefit in terms of extra journey times to car users who do not transfer but overall, assuming a significant modal shift, existing car users could save 2.9 million hours per year and public transport users 7.2 million hours per year. In other words, given the predicted modal shift, there will be many more winners than losers from transit. The transit will increase the number of people within a half hour catchment of Ealing town centre by 13% which has positive implications for the town centre economy. In addition, the provision of an entirely new state-of-the-art on-street public transport system, complementing the provision of new rail services and new rail links from Ealing Broadway, has the potential to raise the profile of Ealing as a major transport hub in outer London and as a centre for office, retail and other development. To achieve maximum priority would require segregated running over those sections of Uxbridge Road where delays occur. Instead of having segregated running only where the road is wide enough for a separate public transport lane as is the case with LBPN and LBI, Transit will probably require some diversion of residual traffic to alternative routes on the distributor road network. This is the same issue as affects any form of road closure or alternative transport provision. Evidence from the Croydon Tramlink study indicates that 20% of current vehicles could transfer to the new transit system and the residual traffic would be spread across distributor roads to the north and south as well as the A4 and A40. These roads may have capacity released by the proposed congestion charging in central London. Should this level of segregation not be implemented then the attractiveness of transit as an alternative means of travel would be reduced and the economic benefits also reduced, possibly compromising potential investment where competing schemes exist elsewhere in London. Various options for Uxbridge Road and its approaches are being studied, including:
Save Ealing's Streets - Details about the Campaign Mayor Says Yes to West London tram scheme Trams in Acton June 2002 ActonW3.com "The Uxbridge Road will get trams, Chiswick will get traffic." October 2001 ChiswickW4.com Map of planned route (Adobe Acrobat required)
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