Mike Parker describes plans for future public transport in Tyne and Wear, including a £500m plan to renew the Metro system.
At Nexus we are used to looking into the future. The decisions we make now will have a big impact on the way the next two generations go about their daily lives; how they travel to work and leisure activities, to hospitals and schools.
The forms and quality of public transport available in the decades ahead will become much more significant as growing pressure on our road network, pollution and fuel prices make people think again about how they travel around the region.
Reliable public transport which people want to use will be vital if the North East is to have a flexible, versatile and competitive economy in years to come.
Project Orpheus sets out our vision for future public transport in Tyne and Wear, reflecting national policy, regional and local transport strategies and the policies of members delegated from local councils to serve on the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority.
At heart is an ambition to encourage modal shift - to get people to step out of their cars and onto Metro, buses and perhaps even trams.
We will do this by providing the highest quality public transport in 29 major traffic corridors flowing into the urban centres of Sunderland and Newcastle. A big part of this is a £500m proposal for the renewal of the Metro system, now 25 years old and in pressing need of investment both to secure its future and then provide the higher level of reliability and comfort modern commuters demand.
While recent months have seen projects for street-running trams fail in other major cities, I still believe they have huge potential, not least because of their popularity with passengers.
We will thus review the viability of schemes for street-running trams every five years as Project Orpheus develops, though we are not promoting specific tram schemes at this time.
None of the projects we envisage as part of Orpheus will happen unless we can gain sufficient funding, and that means attracting sufficient private sector investment and winning support from across the region. For more information on Orpheus, go to www.projectorpheus.com.
Metro renewal
The North East overcame huge challenges 25 years to see the award-winning Tyne and Wear Metro built and opened.
Similar challenges face us now to secure its future for the next 25 years.
It is a fight worth winning - without Metro there would be 15 million more car journeys in Tyne and Wear every year.
It has proved to take traffic off roads and extend opportunity by making it easier for people to travel longer distances for work.
With regeneration projects such as Sunderland Arc, Discovery Quarter in Newcastle and the Baltic Business Park in Gateshead taking shape Metro is perfectly positioned to support the future growth of our urban centres.
Nexus submitted detailed and costed plans for the future of Metro to the Government in 2005. This £500m `preferred case' proposal includes significant improvements to the system, including a new fleet of Metrocars (the first since the system was built), upgraded signalling and communications, and station improvements to provide safe, secure and comfortable travel.
The proposals would also see state-of-the-art ticketing with ticket gates at the busiest stations to further combat fraud, dual tracks between South Shields and Pelaw, and new park and ride facilities across the system.
We are now at a stage where we are seeking preferred programme approval and short-term funding stability from the Government and going to market consultation to gauge private sector interest in our plans.
From this we can further develop the engineering and technical solutions, detailed financial evaluation and procurement strategy.
Bus Corridor Improvements
High quality modern bus services with significant priority over other vehicles will provide the solution for most of the 29 transport corridors for the next 10 years.
Bus Corridor Improvement routes shortlisted in the Tyne and Wear provisional Local Transport Plan include: Gateshead-Heworth-Washington (with a new park and ride site); Washington-Sunderland; South Shields-Boldon Business Park-Washington; Whitley Bay/Tynemouth-Newcastle, and Newcastle radial routes to Walker, Denton and Four Lane Ends.
A five-year implementation plan will be developed with districts and operators through the current Superoute Board to take these and other schemes forward.
Mike Parker is director general of Nexus.