London Transport Network, United Kingdom

The City of London has always been known as having a very well developed public transport system. It has the oldest and largest underground or metro system in Europe at 415km (259 miles) and first opened in 1869. It also has a well developed suburban rail network. Additionally, the city has a small tram and light rail system totalling 54km; these are the Croydon Tram link and the Docklands Light Railway systems. The complexity of the London rail networks, both the Underground and the suburban heavy rail, limits their operational efficiency. This is particularly so with the Northern and Victoria Lines, which have poor station configuration; this limits the number of services that can be run per hour. The amount of investment in London on public transport has been steadily declining since the 1980s and since the decline of Rail Track. During the period 2002 - 2003 there has finally been some activity in decisions to invest in the public transport infrastructure in London. There are some high level rail and tram projects under construction and more being proposed, e.g. Crossrail, East London Line extension, Thameslink 2000, DLR extension and West London Tram. The city of London now has a congestion charging scheme that was introduced in February 2003.

CROSSRAIL PROJECT

The Crossrail project is a proposal for a new East-West railway running underground through central London. It is hoped this project would reduce the current chronic overcrowding on London's rail network by providing a large increase in rail capacity. The Crossrail project has the potential to transport over 150 million passengers per year. The project is being promoted by Cross London Rail Links, a joint venture between Transport for London (TfL) and the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA). Crossrail has been allocated £154 million from the Department for Transport's 10-Year Plan budget to carry out feasibility work on the project and to acquire the necessary permission for Crossrail Lines 1 and 2.

The project plan intends to cut two twin bore tunnels to connect seven stations along the route: Isle of Dogs, Whitechapel, Liverpool Street, Farringdon, Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street and Paddington. The tunnel will also interchange with the existing underground network. The completed tunnels will be built wide enough to allow - for the first time in London - mainline passenger train rolling stock beneath the heart of the city. This type of system is similar to the RER network in Paris.

TUNNELLING UNDER LONDON

The internal diameter of the Crossrail tunnels will be 6m, compared with the 3.8m of the existing underground (Tube) system. It is intended that 18km of new tunnel will be constructed. Each Crossrail tunnel will be designed to last for 120 years. Emergency passenger walkways will be built in each tunnel; these will be 1m wide, allowing safe evacuation in case of emergency. In addition, numerous ventilation and emergency evacuation shafts will be built at regular intervals along the route. The tunnelling will be carried out by specially designed tunnel boring machines (TBM). The method of construction will vary according to the geology of the different areas in London. In the western area of London, where the soil is predominantly 'London clay', the tunnels will be cut and constructed using an open-face tunnel boring machine. To the east, where there are different and variable soil conditions, a dual-mode Earth Pressure Balance Machine will be used. London Regional Metro has put forward alternative proposals. Their plan is to make more use of the already existing rail infrastructure to build a Crossrail type heavy rail metro system. They would still build new tunnels but only where required to fit in with the existing system.

A major new project started at the end of 2001 to extend the East London Line to the north and the south. The group sponsoring the project is the East London Line Group, a consortium of 11 local authorities and regeneration agencies, led by Hackney Council. The East London Line will be extended from Whitechapel via new stations at Shoreditch High Street, Hoxton (Cremer St, E2), Haggerston (Lee St, E8) and Dalston (Dalston Lane, E8) to link with national rail network lines via the North London Line to Highbury & Islington and Finsbury Park. The southern extensions will run to Croydon, Crystal Palace, Wimbledon and Clapham Junction. The first phase of the project on the northern extension is to cost £39 million and the whole project is estimated to cost in the region of £800 million. All the work on both northern and southern extensions is scheduled to complete by 2008.

PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR UNDERGROUND INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT

Metronet, a consortium of Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier Transportation, EDF Energy and Thames Water, was formed in June 1999. They secured in late 2003 a Public Private Partnership agreement with Transport for London to maintain and improve the infrastructure of two thirds (nine lines) of the Underground network for a period of 30 years. A similar consortium, Tubelines, has been granted a 30-year concession on the other third of the network (three lines: Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly). Both companies have agreed to invest a total of €17.5 billion into the upgrading of the network in the first seven years. The companies will be paid by London Underground (the operating company) for the use of the network over the period of the agreement.

PROPOSALS TO BE IMPLEMENTED BY 2011 TO 2017

The company has set out a first phase plan to begin improvements to the infrastructure of the London Underground rail. The first deals with the improvement of signalling systems (though not replacement at this stage); many of these are aimed at relieving various areas that cause delays to services. The second proposal is that the peak services will be increased to 30 trains per hour from the existing 28. Thirdly, it is intended that the Circle Line and Hammersmith & City Line services will be replaced by what is being called a 'T Cup' service. The T-Cup service will run from Hammersmith to Edgware Road via Tower Hill. Trains will start at Hammersmith, go via Edgware Road and Liverpool Street round what is currently known as the 'Outer Rail' and then, on arrival back at Edgware Road, the trains will reverse and follow the reverse path back to Hammersmith. The intention is to create a recovery period (i.e., a layover point) in the trip, which the Circle line does not have currently and which causes many of its problems. At present, trains operating the Circle Line simply go 'round and round', so once running late there is nowhere that lost time can be caught up.

The Hammersmith & City line service between Liverpool Street and Barking will no longer exist. The Hammersmith & City service will reverse at Aldgate. The Metropolitan line's Barking service will be covered by extending the Metropolitan line services beyond Liverpool Street to Barking. During this period the 'A' type rolling stock will be upgraded to new Bombardier trainsets equipped with Automatic Train Protection and Automatic Train Operation systems, although the full use of these systems would have to wait for a major upgrade of the signalling and control systems, which is proposed by 2014.

A new Service Control Centre is to be located at Neasden and will be operational by 2014. Ultimately this centre will be the control point for all the sub surface lines, meaning that Earls Court, Baker Street and all the existing small signal cabins will be decommissioned.

PROPOSALS TO BE IMPLEMENTED BY 2017

The control and signalling systems, the track and the fleet will all have been upgraded. The total trains in service will be in the region of 180. All sections will be controlled from Neasden, with all trains running under ATO/ATP.

This project is to upgrade the existing Thameslink rail commuter service to be more frequent. In addition the operator will run 12-car trains and add new destinations to the service. The new scheme is going to become more important as it will complement other rail schemes proposed for the London area. The new proposals will mean that Moorgate station will no longer form part of the Thameslink train service. A new station is being constructed at St Pancras to accept the greater number of trains but at the present time the extent of the project is uncertain and there is some uncertainty over the amount of funding available.

The Docklands Light Railway will be extended 4.4km from Canning Town towards London City Airport. There will be four or five new stations: Thames Wharf (optional), West Silvertown, Pontoon Dock, London City Airport and King George V. Construction began in early 2003 and the new section will be in full service in the autumn of 2005. This new branch will later be extended again under the river Thames to North Woolwich (2007).

The proposed West London Tram route will run from Uxbridge to Shepherd's Bush Green passing through the town centres of Southall, Hanwell, West Ealing, Ealing and Acton. The tram will provide a frequent, reliable, secure and fully accessible service giving the benefits of a durable, fixed infrastructure while retaining the flexibility of the bus network to serve local communities. If developed, the tram will form part of a West London Surface Transport (bus and tram) network with integrated services and ticketing. The trams will run at frequencies of up to 20 per hour in each direction. The service will be provided by a fleet of 40 modern, electrically powered, low floor trams. Tram stops will be conveniently located to provide easy access to local town centres, amenities and transport interchanges.

Congestion charging started on 17 February 2003 in London. The results of the scheme were very encouraging. Within one month the traffic levels inside the zone were down to 20% less than previous levels. Data showed that the traffic speed through the centre of the zone had increased from 15km/h to 32km/h. This has meant that bus speeds have increased by 15% and are now attracting 10% more passengers during peak hours. An average of 100,000 drivers per day now pay the daily charge of £5. Disabled badge holders are exempt and residents get a 90% discount on the charge. The penalty for non-payment is a fixed penalty fine of £80. The charge must be paid before midnight on the day the car enters the zone. The payment may be made by telephone, in certain shops or on the Internet. The system is controlled by 800 cameras at the entrance and inside the charging zone, which record number plates to compare against a database of people who have paid the charge in any one day. The cost of the operation per year will be €100 million, but the scheme will produce revenues of €500 million.

THE BUSPLUS PROGRAMME

The BusPlus programme is a new multi million pound initiative designed to make a real difference to the quality of some of London's key bus routes.

BusPlus was established to upgrade 70 key bus routes across London to make them more reliable, safer, cleaner and more comfortable than ever before. Work on these routes is planned for completion by 2004.

The BusPlus programme, an initiative toward improving the London Bus network, was introduced in 2001 with a budget of £84.6 million. The scheme is being administered by a partnership including Transport for London (TfL), the London local authorities, the police, bus operators and the London Bus Priority Network (LBPN). 70 routes have been chosen because they are some of the busiest in London, carrying more than 2.2 million people per day. The BusPlus programme is being carried out in two phases. The first phase of the programme will involve an initial 27 key bus routes and was completed in summer 2002. The second phase of the programme was announced in August 2001 and will involve a further 43 key bus routes across London. Improvements to the first 19 of these routes are planned for completion in 2003. The improvements will include the introduction of more bus lanes, the monitoring of bus lanes to keep them clear, the rescheduling of timetables and the study and solution of traffic problems causing delays.