FORBES magazine published the item below about the EDDINGTON report, in 2006: BORIS JOHNSON must read the whole EDDINGTON STUDY and then tell KHOODEELAAR! what evidence he, Boris Johnson, has found to support CRASSrail...
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AFX News Limited
Eddington report calls for more congestion charging,speeded up planning UPDATE
12.01.06, 9:30 AM ET
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LONDON (AFX) - Former British Airways (nyse: BAB - news - people ) boss Sir Rod Eddington has today called on the government to speed up the planning system for transport projects, extend the use of congestion charging and focus on upgrading new infrastructure instead of major new projects - or face spiralling congestion costing the UK economy 22 bln stg every year.
Publishing his long-awaited landmark report on the future of transport in the UK, Eddington made a number of specific proposals and pointed to the danger of growing travel demand due to continued economic success.
'Parts of the system are under serious strain,' he said. 'If left unchecked, the rising cost of congestion will waste an extra 22 bln stg worth of time in England alone by 2025. By then 13 pct of traffic will be subject to stop-start travel conditions.'
Eddington also painted a disturbing picture of the rail network, with commuter rail lines forecast to see further increases in overcrowding, and intercity rail services seeing many trains at or beyond seating capacity on the approaches to cities.
But he said that a reduction of just 5 pct in travel time for all business and freight travel on the roads could generate around 2.5 bln stg of cost savings, or 0.2 pct of GDP. Eliminating existing congestion on the road network would be worth some 7-8 bln stg of GDP per annum.
Central to Eddington's plan to transform the transport network is that the government focus policy and sustained investment on improving the performance of existing transport networks. The report says that British transport policy over the next 20 years should have three priorities: a focus on congested and growing city catchments; a focus on the key interurban corridors; and a focus on the key international gateways that are showing signs of increasing congestion and unreliability.
'Because the UK is already well connected, the key economic challenge is therefore to improve the performance of the existing network,' he said. 'But there is little strategic case for action in all places. To meet its economic goals for transport, government should prioritise action on those parts of the system where networks are critical in supporting economic growth, and there are clear signals that these networks are not performing.'
Eddington warned that investing huge amounts of money in landmark transport projects would not be the best use of resources.
'Large projects with speculative benefits and relying on untested technology, are unlikely to generate attractive returns,' he said.
He also called for further reform of sub-national governance arrangements and a reforming of the the planning process for major transport projects. To do this, he has suggested a new Independent Planning Commission to take decisions on projects of strategic importance.
Eddington says the government should consider extending congestion pricing on the roads and environmental pricing across all modes of transport. 'Pricing on the roads offers potential benefits of up to 28 bln stg each year in 2025 (around 15 bln stg of which are direct GDP benefits),' he said. 'Better use measures, such as traffic flow management, can offer returns as high as 5 stg for every pound spent.'
He says the government should work with the private sector on delivering transport investment, perhaps ushering in further PFI and PPP work. 'The Government's role should be to deliver sustained and targeted infrastructure investment, in those schemes which demonstrate high returns, including smaller schemes tackling pinch points,' he said.
The report shows that 55 pct of commuter journeys are to large urban areas, 69 pct of business trips are less than 15 miles in length, and 89 pct of the delay caused by congestion is in urban areas.
Eddington said that over the last 40 years, falling international transport costs have boosted trade, increasing the UKs economy by over 2.5 pct.
He underlined the importance of developing transport policy in concert with managing emissions. 'It is essential, both from an economic and environmental perspective, that the environmental impacts of transport are fully reflected in decision making,' he said. 'The transport sector, including aviation, should meet its full environmental costs.'
The report immediately created concerns that any new congestion pricing regime could unfairly target small businesses. The Forum of Private Business (FPB), which represents around 25,000 small businesses across the UK, said that the instant introduction of road charging would be unwise.
'If a road charging system were introduced now, it would become just another tax for businesses and their workers because they have little choice,'Nick Goulding, Chief Executive of the FPB, said. 'Business must be able to put significant amounts of freight onto an efficient and cost-effective railway.Employees must have access to quick and cheap public transport.'
Goulding warned that big business could better absorb added transport costs, potentially making smaller enterprises uncompetitive.
'Any road charging system for business must take into account that their ability to adapt to a changing transport infrastructure is dependent on size and sector,' he continued. 'It may be easy for Tesco to utilise the rail networks, but a local trader on the outskirts of a major city may find it difficult to avoid costly charges.'
'Firms will benefit from less congested roads but that will be no consolation for smaller business if their increased profitability is swallowed by a huge rise in transport costs,' he said.
Douglas McNeill, a transport analyst at AIM-specialist stockbroker Corporate Synergy described Eddington's proposals as having 'little of substance.'
Britain lacks the land and the money for significant new transport capacity. Eddingtons modest proposals implicitly acknowledge that, and he's right that better use of existing capacity is the way forward. That means road-pricing - but the government was already pushing that as fast as it judged public opinion would allow.
'The government was already tip-toeing towards road-pricing,' he said. 'That will continue and, when it eventually happens, it will benefit logistics companies and bus operators. But Eddington gives us no clues as to the timescale. For other transport companies, including Crossrail, the Eddington report contains little of substance.'
The British Chambers of Commerce warned the government not to penalise businesses for relying upon the road network, despite conceding that 87 pct of businesses are in favour of some form of road pricing.
'The introduction of road pricing in the UK is becoming increasingly inevitable,' Sally Low, Director of Policy and External Affairs. 'The challenge for business is to ensure that we are not penalised for necessary journeys on the road network.'
Any money raised must be offset by a reduction in other forms of tax and be ring-fenced towards improving transport infrastructure, the BCC advised.
On planning, the British Property Federation welcomed Eddington's call for a new independent planning commission to fast-track delivery of major infrastructure projects vital to the economy.
'The BPF fully supports the Eddington Transport Study's recommendation that moving control of major infrastructure projects to an independent planning commission will ensure better delivery,' it said.
But it also wants the government to include large-scale strategic development schemes within the new fast-track system.
'Since large scale transport or energy developments mirror the problems faced by large scale regeneration schemes, it is logical that all these types of development should be included in the proposals to ensure that marginal schemes which are vital to urban renewal are not abandoned due to unnecessary delays,' it said.
Faraz Baber, director of planning and regeneration at the BPF said: 'We are delighted about the growing recognition of the need to rethink how the planning system can deliver major projects in a timely manner. The current system adopted in the 2004 Planning Act is still taking time to bed-in within many local and regional authorities, and it is still unlikely to provide for delivering a planning process to cater for major projects without encountering lengthy delays.'
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