Case Studies

Transport Consultancy

Researching and writing transport integration plans

Having undertaken both bus and rail commissions, one of our specialist areas is writing transport integration plans, specifically for rail franchise bids.

There is no definition of transport integration that is both practical and up to date, and in the UK the concept goes back to the 1930s with no clear indication of positive success or meaningful policy emphasis. This is not, incidentally, by any means the experience outside the UK borders where some successful schemes have been introduced.

For the purposes of rail franchise bidding Transport Integration is taken to mean the use of simple measures to facilitate access to stations (beyond use of the car) and cost effective measures to reduce the pain of modal change. We have now written six transport integration plans. These involve identification of existing under-publicized facilities, development of straightforward improvements such as signage or bus stopping arrangements, introduction of through ticketing offers where feasible and a host of activities that often use third party funding to achieve local objectives. One of the main areas is improving very poor information provision.

We have also been used to advise on other areas where service changes (or engineering work) will require changes to travel patterns or more cross modal working.

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