Keynote Speech

Learning From Best Practice: Lessons from European Transport Policy and Practice for Scotland

Please click here for the full presentation or read on for a summary of the talk.

Dr Tom Rye, Lecturer in Transport Studies at the School of the Built Environment, Napier University, started the conference with the keynote presentation: learning lessons from transport policy in Europe. This was an excellent start to the event as it provided a reference point for the day’s discussions and put the issues on the Firth of Clyde into the broader, international context.

Dr Rye’s research set out to establish what factors contribute to best practice in transport policy delivery. It sought to find out which regions had made exemplary progress in their transport policy and what delivery mechanisms they used to achieve this. Finally, he looked at the benefits which could be gained from these mechanisms and how effective they would be if transferred to Scotland.

Dr Rye used a mixture of literature, questionnaires, interviews and case studies to gather information on best practice in transport policy, what conditions were required for public transport implementation and whether these conditions exist in Scotland.

The results of the interview and questionnaire process showed that the transport policy objectives were similar across interviewees. Although progress has been made in infrastructure, services and accident reduction with more accessible public transport, there has been mixed results in public transport patronage and rarely a complete transport mode shift. In general, there is more consistent delivery of larger scale projects than very local transport.

The most important factor in delivering effective public transport services is funding. Long term, consistent political support is also very important. Most areas surveyed have a regional body with transport responsibilities, which, combined with other factors, contributes to better delivery of public transport projects.

Moving onto the case studies, the cities used were Basel, Freiburg, Stuttgart and Stockholm. In Basel, Freiburg and Stuttgart public transport has priority and cars and parking are restricted. Park and ride systems and trams or light rail lines are widely used.

In general, the success factors the case study cities had in common were that they all had integrated ticketing, funding, the existence of a regional body and the tendering of public transport and service integration. In addition, where a shift in mode of transport was achieved, there had been a long term implementation of policies such as restraint-based parking and/or roadspace reallocation and the integration of land use and transport policy.

Whilst it is notoriously difficult to collect reliable data on cost, the study did show that, out of eight European cities and one Canadian one, the average public transport investment and subsidy per head was higher than that in the Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) area.

Comparing this to Scotland showed that the case study regions also had twice the capital funding levels for public transport and the revenue funding for public transport was 20% higher. Ticketing was also more straightforward with cheap, integrated multimodal tickets available for the region and better integration of public transport services with timed connections and new journey opportunities. Also there was no deregulation as there is in Scotland.

Dr Rye finished by asking whether these success factors were transferable to Scotland. He concluded that some are more feasible than others. Although some integrated ticketing already occurs, further use of integrated ticketing is not possible under current legislation. There is now the possibility for increased capital investment, however increased revenue subsidy is less likely. The development of regional bodies is now on the agenda as is service integration although this depends in part on FirstGroup and the direction they take. Dr Rye felt that political consensus is still unlikely. There would also be costs associated with the organisational upheaval which would be required.

This overview of public transport projects from Europe was a very stimulating and interesting introduction to the conference and allowed the delegates to consider the subsequent presentations in the light of this experience elsewhere in Europe.

For more information, please see Napier University website, www.tri.napier.ac.uk or contact the Firth of Clyde Forum.