Light Rapid Transit Forum

Funding light rail... “it can be done!”

“It can be done.” That was the message delegates to the 4th Annual Light Rapid Transit Forum conference on 14 May heard from the Department for Transport’s Director of Regional and Local Transport Delivery John Dowie.
Mr Dowie was addressing the audience of key UK light rail stakeholders in Croydon as part of a panel discussion on funding for light rail schemes. Speaking to a packed hall, Mr Dowie described the welcome decision that Manchester will receive £1.4bn in transport improvements – announced just the day before  – as “a positive vote of support for tram investment in the UK.”
“We have a very clear and transparent process,” Mr Dowie said, defending the UK Government’s Regional Funding Allocation, a system that allows regional authorities some discretion in how they spend grants from central government. “That system is not biased against trams” he argued. “Look at Manchester… securing hundreds of millions of pounds from the North West Region, the same region which has allocated £65m to Blackpool.
“What the North West and Greater Manchester have done is cut a road scheme, taking £180m out of the Highways Agency and putting it, basically, into trams.”
The Department for Transport official also highlighted money going to provide a new fleet for South Yorkshire Supertram and the ‘reinvigoration’ of the Tyne & Wear Metro as positive signs of the UK Government’s commitment to light rail. However, he also admitted that following the rejection of road pricing by voters in Greater Manchester, Transport Innovation Fund money linked to congestion charging – a much-trumpeted alternative source of government cash – “has had a little misadventure.”
Even so, and despite repeated questioning from panel chairman Scott McIntosh (Mott MacDonald’s Senior Consultant in Light Rail), Mr Dowie robustly defended the Department for Transport’s strategic direction, saying: “Where people criticise the Government for not having a plan, what they mean is, ‘you’ve got a plan, but I don’t like it.’”

How to get the cash…
Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive Nexus – one of the organisations praised by the Department for Transport’s John Dowie for having levered Government cash its way – was on hand to explain how it succeeded.
Bernard Garner, Nexus’ Director General, told the assembled delegates how, through sound analysis and careful lobbying, the PTE had obtained more than £320m for major investment in the Tyne & Wear Metro between 2010 and 2019. This comes on top of the £77m of renewals and modernisation being carried out between 2006 and 2010. Metro modernisation was “essential”, Mr Garner said, and that life without the system was “untenable.”
Unsurprisingly, particularly given the conference’s location in Croydon’s Fairfield Halls, South London’s successful Tramlink was one of the many modern light rail systems discussed in detail. Iain Sim, Croydon Council’s Divisional Director of Urban Regeneration, highlighted Tramlink’s rapid growth, from zero passengers in 2000 to 28m eight years later; this correlates to 7000 fewer car journeys in the London Borough every day.
Inward investment and property prices had also increased as a result, Mr Sim argued, and regeneration of the disadvantaged area of New Addington was now a reality. With Tramlink cutting journey times into central Croydon from an hour to just 17 minutes, employment opportunities previously prohibitive to New Addington residents were now feasible, he said.

Supporting wider city ‘visions’
A very different perspective came from Yves Laurin, Transdev’s Light Rail Director, who detailed why France is able to deliver many more new light rail systems than Britain.
Describing the French experience as “stunning”, Mr Laurin held up a copy of Tramways & Urban Transit 858 – which broke the story of France’s latest multi-billion Euro boost for light rail and metro development over the coming decade – to demonstrate his native country’s commitment to invest.
Explaining the Gallic outlook, Mr Laurin said: “When you choose a tram, you are
creating a new vision for your city. Whether that’s right or wrong, it is the reason why so many French mayors have decided to go through the painful years of debate and the nightmare of roadworks in the very centre of their cities. The end of the story has always been the same:
commercial success and a happy public.”
Mr Laurin remained confident this process will continue for the foreseeable future, further widening the public transport gap between France and the UK: “It is reasonable to forecast that in ten years’ time around 30 cities will
have trams – and this doesn’t include the development of trams in or around Paris.” Yet he warned: “The development of trams in France is a particular story… This has happened in a defined context and is not easily transferable.”
Deliberately avoiding using French examples – instead concentrating on Portland, Oregon – Atkins’ Senior Managing Consultant Bob Miller gave an illuminating talk on how planners can best understand and present business cases for light rail. He argued that while obtaining public support from local residents and businesses is crucial, even the best-planned and most popular schemes need a good business case that is realistic and ‘honest’.
The case for local and national authority investment was then highlighted by his
description of how regions have been tasked with preparing ‘30-year strategic plans’ that identify sub-national investment priorities by 2011, prepare detailed plans for 2014-2019 and longer-term proposals for 2019-2021.
To maximise potential for investment, LRT promoters everywhere need to ally themselves to established visions for regional and urban development plans and present a holistic view that covers all economic, social and environmental factors as part of, in Mr Miller’s words, the “benefits cocktail”. He added that: “Just as there are multiple benefits, there may also be multiple agencies who hold the sources of funds.”

Proving the benefits
The need to properly measure financial benefits was the theme of Professor Carmen Hass-Klau’s presentation on how light rail affects property prices. Of the UK examples studied by her team, Professor Hass-Klau singled out the Nottingham Express Transit system as being especially successful, having brought about a 15% premium in property prices around tram stops. Other cities studied included Greater Manchester (9%) and Greater London (10%); of the British population centres measured only Sheffield showed no appreciable premium attached to the proximity of light rail.
Similar research by Professor Hass-Klau’s team in Germany puts Freiburg, which has a much-applauded light rail system, on top with prices near tram stops a remarkable 24% higher than those some distance away. “Price
differentials created by new public transport investments can be very high” she observed. “An added value of 20-25% to properties close to stations is not unusual.”
However, despite the undoubted success of the wide-ranging presentations on the day, the panel debates undoubtedly drew the most
attention – and in the afternoon one, former UK Minister of Transport and outspoken Conservative London Mayoral candidate, Steven Norris, made his mark.
Mr Norris claimed that while Tramlink had brought about an “astonishing transformation” in Croydon and the surrounding areas, “you can’t put that through a cost benefit analysis and come out with a positive.”
Whichever political party is in power in the UK, he warned, the Treasury will still keep the true power over funding decisions: “This is about mindset…” Mr Norris continued, “and if you think that will change with governments, then let me disabuse you. The man from the Treasury still rules, and the man from the Treasury is as yet wholly un-persuaded.”
Paul Rowen, MP for Rochdale and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Light Rail, agreed with Mr Norris’ argument that local accountability is the way forward.
Speaking of Manchester’s success in obtaining funding for expansion of the Metrolink light rail system, he said: “The whole of Greater Manchester, effectively, rose up and they had to give us the £500m back. Refering to John Dowie’s earlier speech he added: “Yesterday we got the rest of it. Local people can still teach the Treasury a thing or two.”