NOTTINGHAM | The Transport Thread (Exc The Tram)

[Stefan88]

Threats to A453 Plans.

MULTI-MILLION pound plans to upgrade one of Nottingham's busiest roads are under threat, former chancellor Ken Clarke said today.
The Rushcliffe MP believes "something has to give" after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a £1.5bn payout on a recession-busting nationwide new homes scheme.
And he fears the £168m scheme to widen the A453 – one of Nottingham's busiest and most often clogged arterial routes – is the type of project which will be put on the back burner.
Mr Clarke, who is shadow business secretary, said: "The Government are trying to spend money when they have very little of it, and something will have to give. I'm afraid it will be the A453.
"The Transport budget is often where money needed for other projects comes from and the A435 is just the type of scheme to get cut."
The Evening Post revealed earlier this week that £165m set aside by the Government for the Decent Homes scheme – which aims to improve Nottingham's rundown former council homes – is also under threat from the Prime Minister's new homes announcement.
Nottingham will lose £333m of Government spending if neither the A453 or Decent Homes scheme go ahead.
The A453 upgrade is said to be crucial for Notts' economic development and important for a number of other schemes, including Donington Park hosting the British Grand Prix, the Parkway railway station and to provide transport links to new homes planned in Rushcliffe.
Mr Brown was asked this week to guarantee he would not raid regional transport budgets – like the one for the A453 widening – to pay for the new home building scheme.
Instead he said: "I think it is important to recognise that spending on transport is up nearly 100% in real terms over the last 12 years."
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis was later asked the same question by a select committee member. He said the amount of money allocated to regional transport budgets depended on available resources at the time.
"If one were in a position of constraint then what I would have a responsibility to do as a Secretary of State is look across the department at what the options are," he said.
The East Midlands Regional Assembly (EMRA) has warned the cost of the A453 widening, which was scheduled to begin at the end of 2010, could shoot up if it is delayed.
An EMRA spokesman said: "The A453 has been in the gestation period for an awfully long time and there have been lots of talks, lots of deliberation, lots of statements, lots of planning and work."
"A huge amount of effort and resources have been extended by the public sector to get it to this stage.
"If it was delayed for a couple of years then you could expect to see the cost of the project rise."
A DFT spokesman said the A453, as the East Midlands' top priority, was still dependent on ministerial approval.
"The region has confirmed that the A453 Nottingham to M1 J24 improvement is a priority and the Highways Agency is progressing the scheme through the statutory procedures

[Ranwolf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8164070.stm

A £1bn plan to electrify the main rail route between London and Swansea has been announced by the government.

A second line between Liverpool and Manchester will also be converted from diesel to electric.

Bah!

The last sentence in the piece rubs it in.

The government is still considering electrifying another major diesel route, the Midland Main Line between London and Sheffield, but has not committed the proposal.

[djfusion777]

At least it's being considered. The announcement is welcome, any proper investment in rail infrastructure is worthwhile.

[duane]

I loved the way on the news they said the government are electrifying the whole network. Then listed where was electrified and where was going to be electrified. Didn't even mention the midland mainline. I found it hilarious. The east midlands is treated so badly by the government.

[Parkey]

I was surprised when I heard that the GWML would go first, after all I do remember reading that the MML has the higher projected Benefit-Cost ratio.

I suspect the choice of the GWML is to do with the Intercity Express Programme. A lot of these trains are destined for the GWML and if the government are going for the electric variant it would make sense to get the wires up on this route in time for these new trains.

By contrast the majority of the MML fleet (Class 222 Meridians) is quite young and not in such urgent need of replacement.

[NCT]

Bus services in Nottingham are amongst the best in the country. Service level and standard of vehicles are better than many cities of comparable size (most other cities don't have Go2 routes and Rainbow routes AND minor routes), fares are cheaper than First monopolies, and punctuatlity and staff attitude are a lot better than in London.

What would be great is if there were a TfL-style regulatory authority with more say on timetable coordination and ticketing. I wouldn't automatically go the full way of competitive tendering across the board though as Nottingham's geography is quite different to that of London, and the current NCT and TB arrangement actually works wonders.

[MattN]

As long as you only want to go to the city centre, it's fine. Almost anywhere else, forget it. In fact many places have different tiers of service as you suggest, and it's quite simple to improve services along city centre corridors. Orbital links require more planning, and no operator would take such risks as we see. The council would not be capable of coming up with such things, there are few people there who know what they are talking about and are in a position to see it through, by and large they are more concerned with banging their own drum.

I see no advantage to a couple of unregulated operators being patted on the back for dominating an imaginary market place whilst (particularly with Trent Barton) demanding public funding to make them more money e.g. with bus lanes, whilst there is no means of planning appropriate service levels across the board. Seems much better to have a publically supported but professionally planned network where resources are more sensibly allocated. Maybe we should give the german speaking countries a call and let them sort it. Timetable co-ordination barely registers with anyone here. The city council's transport plan sums up the lack of expertise with regards to planning an integrated public transport system-they think an extension of Kangaroo into a season ticket would mean Nottingham had one! When they aren't saying that it already does, of course...

[PerfectDark]

As we speak they are taking away a small left turn lane right outside the Litmus building on Huntington Street. It will make the pavement incredibly wide outside the Litmus Building as it was already quite expansive. I do wonder why they have done this, as St Anns Well road is quite a majoir route into St Anns, or maybe that was the reason Haha!

It will give people one less lane to walk across so maybe they wish to speed up the lights? Does anyone have any info on this minor change? or know of where to find such info?

Is this even the best forum for such questions? Ideas?

[MattN]

They've been rebuilding the roundabout as well.

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/ho...l/article.html Saw this in the Post earlier. Doesn't it make one despair.

[pharmj]

Perfect, that is part of the Turning Point East Project, which aims to make that a much busier two way street,rather than the awkward one way system is is now. It will mean that the area running up the ice arena and Parliament Street should be much quieter.

http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/ind...articleid=1722

that gives you some more details...cant put the map on here as my pdf doesnt work.

[d4mo85]

EDIT: Wrong thread, sorry

[MattN]

Are you sure pharmj? I thought it was still very much in the planning stages. And given the scale of the change, surely work would have to take place in more locations than just one small junction.

[PerfectDark]

Ah I see, that makes up one of the 'links' to St Anns. Seems rather odd to just expand the pavement in this way for no apparent reason when it's quite a busy road. There is PLENTY of pavement there and I really don't understand how reducing the width of roads will make that crossing more 'attractive' to walk down.

Why would they want to make huntington street two way anyway? It's a bit awkward having to go past Oceana but I thought the one way systems around nottingham was in place to ease congestion by using using two roads instead of one. Surely at one point this road was two ways, so why the change back and forth? I suppose this has been done entirely to quieten down the road in front of the ice arena at the expense of congestion behind it.

From the plans it also looks like they are removing the Island by the BBC building? Really?

[MattN]

From what I remember the main reasons stated have been to make it 'simpler', as well as to convert the present northbound traffic route into a bus route to 'improve access' to that side of town. Of course about 8 years ago they made all those clear zone and tram alterations to allow the bus route to return to Fletcher Gate, and after a spate of diversions of buses via the back of the Ice Centre NCT held a ballot as to whether the routes should continue up Fletcher Gate or follow the diversions permanently. You can see the result but it seems council priorities have changed.

They have long had rather vague plans to alter routes for Eastside as well, presumably this ties in with it even though Eastside is far from certain by the looks of it. Yes presumably it was two way once, but that's not much of a point in itself really is it lol?

As for London Road Island, it would appear so from the plans. Since it is essentially a signalised junction anyway, and most traffic will now be running up and down via the same route, I suppose it makes sense. It might even make the road layout lead more certainly towards the Southern Relief Route for Queens Drive traffic as well, I suspect this is intended.

[PerfectDark]

As I see it, Huntington Street is a problem for Nottingham.

It is a very busy road that gets completely filled up during rush hour and is a barrier between the city and St Anns. But what can really be done? That traffic needs to go somewhere.

It forms essentially a ringroad around the city and as cars are getting pushed out of the city, like the recent no-car zone on George Street, and the planned introduction of a bus lane... is it a bus lane? at the front of the Ice Arena... this congestion will only get worse.

It's an interesting problem though, recent developments on Huntington street attempt to expand the city outwards but it hasn't as yet worked. I think getting cars out of the city centre is a good idea, but it will be at the cost of road users.

[pharmj]

Some good news from the Dept for Transport in London...

TRANSPORT Secretary Andrew Adonis said a major upgrade to electrify the rail track linking Nottingham to London will definitely happen.

Before now Lord Adonis would only confirm that the Government was "investigating" the case to upgrade the Midland Mainline.

But the cabinet minister has now stated that electrification of the track was "clearly going to happen" – stopping short of committing to a start date.

He made the statement last night while addressing a group of politicians, including those from the city, who are pushing for the upgrade – which has an estimated cost of between £300m and £400m.

He said: "The electrification of the Midland Mainline is just a matter of dates. It is clearly going to happen. It is inconceivable going into the medium term future that we will not have predominantly an electric railway."

Electrification would see faster, less polluting trains – which are able to carry more passengers – running to and from the capital.

But leaders in the East Midlands have been let down by successive announcements on electrification which have seen money going to other regions.

Nottingham City Council cabinet member for transport Jane Urquhart, said: "We now will keep lobbying for electrification to happen as quickly as possible."

It is good that Nottingham City Council is actively pushing the city's cause on this, as its so important to have fast connection times. This combined with the HUB (anyone got any news on this) should be a massive boost to Nottingham

[Mark76]

Great. The line to Nottingham (there's a direct line from London? I thought it passed through Leicester) will end up electrified and the one that goes to Leicester won't. Once more we'll be left an afterthought on the slow lane desperately trying to scrape up whatever dregs of economic development fall from your plate whilst our economy becomes ever more moribund and hopeless.

[Bingethink]

No, they're talking about the Midland Mainline which runs from Sheffield to London, passing through both Nottingham and Leicester.

[Mark76]

Yay!

Future prosperity here we come

[MattN]

The main route to Sheffield runs though Derby, not Nottingham, though. It will be interesting to see just what is proposed.