Final Local Transport Plan 2006/07 - 2010/11

This second Greater Manchester Local Transport Plan (LTP2) outlines the approach being taken by the Greater Manchester authorities towards transport planning and investment for the period 2006/7 to 2010/11.  It builds upon the principles and context of the Provisional LTP2, submitted in July 2005.  Since that time work has continued on strategy development, including the Accessibility, Air Quality and Bus Strategies, which are being submitted alongside this final Plan. Programmes of individual authorities have been further developed, along with the Plan’s targets and trajectories.

Greater Manchester - A Dynamic City Region

Government is increasingly framing national economic policy around the economic success of City Regions and their direct relationship to, and major impact on, national economic competitiveness. Closing the productivity gap between London/the South East and the rest of the Country is a national priority, and the Northern Way Growth Strategy, Regional Economic Strategy and other national, regional and local strategies have identified the Manchester City Region as having the potential to make the most significant contribution to the future growth of the North of England.

GMLTP2 has been produced by a partnership of the ten Greater Manchester local authorities and the Passenger Transport Authority. This partnership is the largest to produce a joint plan in the UK. and the plan itself relates to a complex, diverse and dynamic city region which is home to 2.5 million people. The city region has an agreed vision for the future which sees its economy growing, its environment enhanced and more of its people able to benefit from the opportunities which a revitalised Greater Manchester will have to offer.

The plan describes the key drivers for change including the Regional Centre where very significant economic growth is forecast; the other major town centres which are local foci for employment and retail activity and which all have significant proposals for their regeneration and renewal; Manchester Airport the third largest airport in the UK which is forecast to grow to be handling 38 million passengers per year by 2015 , and a range of regionally significant development sites which will provide a variety of new economic opportunities across the sub region.

Furthermore the Plan and the longer term Integrated Transport Strategy will have a significant part to play in beginning to address the impact that transport in Greater Manchester has on climate change and assisting the Government to meet its Kyoto obligations. In this regard note will be taken of the Government’s forthcoming climate change review and our programme will be adjusted if necessary. City regions have a key role to play in developing more sustainable patterns of living and working and while what can be achieved within a five year period is inevitably limited, the plan sets out a clear “direction of travel” towards a more sustainable future.

The Vision for Greater Manchester

The overall context for the Plan is set by 'Sharing the Vision - a Strategy for Greater Manchester'. This is supported by all the key organisations in the conurbation. It is founded on 8 themes: to promote a dynamic economy; enhance the regional centre; promote culture, sport and tourism; improve connectivity; raise levels of education and skills; create sustainable communities; reduce crime; and improve health and healthcare services.

The Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Strategy (GMITS)

This forms the long-term, 15-year transport context for LTP2, and provides a framework for its transport policies and investment programmes. GMITS shows how the transport network needs to develop so that it can respond to the demands placed on it by a growing economy, and at the same time  influence future patterns of spatial development and economic growth. It must also enhance the local environment and address the issue of social exclusion by the creation of more truly sustainable communities. The key strands of GMITS are:

• more use of public transport for trips to centres
• better facilities to encourage short journeys to be made on foot or by cycle
• land use planning and regeneration strategies to minimise trips to out of centre locations.

The longer-term economic growth needs of the Manchester City Region will require more transport investment and increasing use of a demand management “toolkit”. Hence Greater Manchester authorities are working closely with the Department for Transport to identify the point at which congestion can significantly harm economic growth and the environment (the “ tipping point”). This is the point when significant investment in public transport capacity will, therefore, be needed and when behavioural change strategies and other harder-edged demand management measures may need to be adopted. Detailed proposals for infrastructure investment, demand management, behavioural change, revenue raising, funding and financing, and local institutional reform will be included in our substantive Transport Innovation Fund bid.

LTP2 -Tackling the Shared Priorities and  Prioritising Effectively

The Plan focuses on a five-year programme designed as the first stage of delivery of the Vision for Greater Manchester and GMITS. In doing so, it tackles the key problems and issues affecting the shared Department for Transport/Local Government Association priorities (Tackling Congestion, Delivering Accessibility, Safer Roads, Better Air Quality, and Other Quality of Life Issues).  Wherever possible, schemes are designed to benefit a range of strategies particularly economic, social, environmental, and health. 

The prime objective of our plan is to accommodate the trips generated by the projected increase in jobs in the most sustainable way so as to improve social inclusion and protect the environment and improve the quality of life. A key aim for the strategy is, therefore, for economic growth not to increase congestion significantly. Given that major schemes take a long-time to deliver, LTP2 prioritises schemes which can be implemented in the short-term, and hence there is a focus on measures to increase walking, cycling and the use of buses. The strategy is consistent with the financial planning guidelines provided by the Department for Transport (including the South East Manchester Multi Modal Strategy funding element), the transport infrastructure fund money provided by the Department for Transport for schemes predominantly in Bolton and Wigan, and the Regional Funding Allocation regional advice for major schemes.

We recognise the need to prioritise. There is a particular emphasis on measures which encourage the journey to work and school to be undertaken by more sustainable modes, given that the peak periods at which these trips occur are the times when the networks are under the greatest stress.  The plan contains measures to encourage modal shift to cycling and walking for short trips.  Tackling these issues holistically will enable us to facilitate continued economic activity yet achieve the greatest impacts, particularly on congestion and air quality, which in turn will have a positive impact on health.  Furthermore, the accessibility strategy prioritises key measures for improving access to essential services to assist social inclusion, which in turn will assist economic growth and should also have positive benefits to health, particularly by improving access to healthcare.  The road safety strategy targets the key locations where improvements would have the greatest impact on reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured in road accidents, whilst the maintenance strategy prioritises expenditure which not only meets local needs but also contributes to LTP objectives concerning economic and urban regeneration, social inclusion, and environmentally sustainable transport.  This approach seeks to maximise the effectiveness of solutions in order to achieve high levels of value for money.

A key strength in delivering LTP2 in Greater Manchester is partnership working. To this end we have been developing closer working relationships with stakeholders, particularly the Highways Agency and bus operators. Mechanisms such as Integrate, QBC Review Group and Corridor Partnerships will be used to strengthen partnerships, identify and agree outcomes and targets, and coordinate the delivery of measures.

The transport outcomes and targets we plan to deliver

Through the measures identified in the plan we are planning to deliver the following outcomes over the period from 2006 to 2011 -:

• No significant worsening in congestion and area wide traffic flow growth on local roads of no more than 2%.
• Improving accessibility, to local facilities and making buses and rail stations more accessible for people with mobility difficulties
• A 50% reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads by 2010 compared with the 1994 to 1998 average and a 55% reduction in the number of children killed and seriously injured
• A 39% reduction in the level of nitrogen oxide emissions from traffic on local roads and a 1% reduction in Co2 emissions compared with the “do nothing” scenario.
• An increase in bus patronage of 4% against the background of a historically declining trend
• An increase in bus punctuality of 12 percentage points to 85% of all journeys
• A five percentage points increase in satisfaction with local bus services amongst all residents
• An increase in Metrolink patronage of 11% between 2003/04 and 2010/11 with the completion of the phase 1 and 2 enhancements
• An increase in rail patronage of 12% between 2003/04 and 2010/11
• An increase of 4 percentage points in the proportion of peak hour trips to the regional centre made by modes other than the private car.

Linkage with Regional Strategies

The Plan is consistent with the emerging framework set out in the Regional Transport Strategy contained within the draft Regional Spatial Strategy ( RSS) with its particular emphasis on developing high quality public transport, better management of the highway network, improved access to Manchester Airport and developing networks for walking and cycling.  The Plan is also consistent with the transport investment and management priorities set out in draft RSS.  Final LTP2 also takes account of the Regional Economic Strategy ministerial submission, published in January 2005, with its emphasis on facilitating the conditions for sustainable growth, in particular increasing the use of public transport, tackling congestion and improving the accessibility of Manchester Airport and the designated Strategic Investment Sites.

To take forward the Northern Way Growth Strategy, significant analysis and forecasting has been undertaken to assist with the development of the City Region Development Plan (CRDP).  This work has assessed the potential for growth of the key growth sectors identified in the Regional Economic Strategy within the Manchester City Region.  These forecasts have been input into our Strategy Planning, Public Transport and Sub-Regional Highway Network models to help understand the land-use and transport implications and develop a strategy to accommodate the growth in the most sustainable way.  Hence this modelling work has helped to inform the development of the Sub- Regional Spatial Strategy and the CRDP Implementation Plan as well as further development of the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Strategy, on a common basis to assist integration of the strategies.

Strategic Environmental Assessment

We have undertaken a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of Provisional LTP2, the draft work programmes and the proposed major schemes to assess their impact on the environment.  Where needed, we have developed mitigation strategies to ensure that overall LTP2 protects the environment, improves social inclusion and enables economic growth to be sustainable over the long-term. We have used independent environmental experts to carry out the SEA, with a view to promoting sustainable development, and to ensure that impacts were taken into account at the earliest stage and throughout LTP2 development. 

The SEA confirmed that LTP policies, major schemes and minor works programmes were broadly compliant with the environmental objectives identified in the scoping exercise. Clearly some transport schemes have negative environmental effects. However these will be assessed in detail and mitigation measures developed during the Environmental Impact Assessment work for each scheme, the role of SEA being to take a broader view. The SEA can be viewed at www.gmltp.co.uk

Structure of the Document

The document contains six main sections

• Chapter 1 explains the significance of the Greater Manchester City Region in its regional and North of England context and sets out the key challenges that we face.
• Chapter 2 sets out Greater Manchester's longer-term Vision and our Integrated Transport Strategy which will help to deliver the Vision and tackle the key challenges.
• Chapter 3 sets out how we have developed LTP2 as the first step to achieving our Vision by taking account of the key lessons we have learned delivering LTP1, the views of stakeholders about how they wanted to see LTP2 developed, the key messages from the Strategic Environmental Assessment; and the management process adopted to enable the Plan to be developed inclusively, whilst taking account of and influencing other related sub-regional strategies.
• Chapter 4 identifies the key Problems, Issues and Opportunities which affect our ability to achieve the longer-term Vision and contains details of the outcomes which we aim to deliver over the next five years.
• Chapter 5 describes the five year implementation programme which aims to address the identified problems and issues and hence achieve the objectives and outcomes; it also explains how our programme contributes towards delivering national policy, the Northern Way Growth Strategy, the Regional Economic Strategy, the existing Regional Spatial Strategy and the draft new Regional Spatial Strategy.
• Chapter 6 describes the Performance Management and Monitoring Systems for overseeing programme delivery and reacting to changing circumstances.  It also sets out our specific performance indicators and targets that we seek to achieve.

A number of supporting documents have been produced. These provide more detail of the key component strategies which comprise LTP2.  The following are submitted with this document.

• Accessibility Strategy
• Bus Strategy
• The LTP2 Consultation and Engagement Report
• The LTP2 Monitoring Technical Report
• South East Manchester Multi-Modal Study Implementation Plan
• Major Scheme Summaries
• Air Quality Local Transport Strategy and Action Plan
• Network Management Local Authority Proformas
• The Draft Greater Manchester Maintenance Strategy and Exceptional Maintenance Bids
• Progress on Transport  Asset Management Plans
• Progress on Rights of Way Improvement Plans
• Greater Manchester Parking Standards