Transport integration - an impossible dream?

Transport Integration and an Integrated Transport Policy have been widely espoused for many years, yet remain an ambiguous and ill-defined concept. After featuring strongly in the 1998 Transport Policy White Paper, recently transport integration has received less emphasis. However it appears it is set for a return under the new Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis.This paper explores the meaning of Integrated Transport. It concludes that there is no point in attempting to identify a single definition, but that there are overlapping layers of meaning, with higher levels incorporating lower, or narrower, understandings of the term Integrated Transport. This exploration of meanings of integration is a development of initial work (Potter and Skinner 2000) and is important as the alternative meanings lead to different transport policy responses. These meanings include: - Locational Integration: being able to easily change between transport modes (using Interchanges) - this is about services connecting in space - Timetabling Integration: Services at an interchange connect in time. - Ticketing Integration: Not needing to purchase a new ticket for each leg of a journey - Information Integration: Not needing to enquire at different places for each stage of a trip - or that different independent sources are easily connected - Service Design Integration: That the legal, administrative and governance structures permit/encouraging integration - Travel Generation Integration: Integrating the planning of transport with the generators of travel (particularly integration with land use planning) Furthermore, there are inherent tensions which make transport integration difficult to achieve. Only limited progress has been achieved in the UK since the 1998 White Paper, and even in Germany, with their strong transport policy structures, integration has failed (Schöller-Schwedes, 2009). This exploration of meanings will also explore the tensions involved as there is a danger of the UK chasing again a flawed concept

Next Stop: California: The Benefits of High-Speed Rail Around the World and What's in Store for California

Outlines the advantages of high-speed rail systems replacing short-haul air and inter-city car travel, including energy, environmental, and economic benefits. Makes recommendations for land use, planning, and design to maximize benefits for California

Theoretical investigations into competition, regulation, and integration in transport networks

This thesis consists of three parts. In the first part, we review the literature and some of the key issues in UK transport. We identify a need to discourage car use and the role that public transport plays in this. We discuss the various options available to policymakers to reduce problems of congestion and pollution. We note how the emphasis on deregulation and competition to promote public transport, and discourage car use, have had perverse side effects. In some cases, public transport services have become disintegrated; resulting in reductions in flexibility and increasing the generalised cost of travelling – making public transport less attractive. This raises an important question: how do we encourage a greater degree of service integration without undoing the gains from competition? The second part of the thesis, explores this issue using a theoretical transport network model. We find that various regimes involving private firms are likely to lead to the provision of an integrated ticketing system, but that not all such regimes are socially desirable. We consider how the configuration of regulatory policy may steer the private firms to produce more socially desirable outcomes.The deregulation of elements of the UK public transport network has often led to situations approaching local monopoly. The third part of this thesis investigates the private (monopoly) incentive to offer joined-up services relative to the social incentive. The more complete the service provision, the closer the match with consumer’s preferences, and the lower the generalised cost of travel. We find the monopolist does not always choose the socially desirable level of service, even when economically viable, but it may be possible to induce this provision through entry or threats of entry on a sub-set of the network.The thesis ends with a summary of the main results and suggestions for further work

Long-Distance Passenger Rail Services: Review and Improvement

The situation of long-distance in Europe rail has faced different developments at literally different speeds since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Relevant central European parts of the OEM Corridor (e.g. Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary) first suffered a considerable decline in cross-border long-distance rail traffic due to the emergence of low-cost airlines and the freedom of car purchase in the 1990s. Since the beginning of the millennium and partly following the 2004 accession of Middle and Eastern European countries to the European Union, a slight renaissance of Eurocity trains and market penetration of high-speed rail products can be perceived. The other countries in the eastern part of the corridor have mostly not recovered from the rail decline and lag behind. In Greece, rail development suffers generally from unfavourable conditions (different track gauges and disproportion of land and population distribution) and a lack of innovation, and has thus been negatively impacted by the abovementioned boom of car and air. Its geographical isolation in Europe also plays a role. The political downturn of former Yugoslavia reinforced the situation. For passenger rail along the corridor, the paper argues that considerable improvements in service quality and travel time reduction can be made without doubtful high investment in high-speed rail infrastructure. Moreover, building up existing rail infrastructure may avoid giving up conventional rail services as shown for some high-speed rail cases.Der schienengebundene Personenfernverkehr in Europa hat sich seit dem Fall des Eisernen Vorhangs mit buchstäblich unterschiedlichen Geschwindigkeiten unterschiedlich entwickelt. Wichtige mitteleuropäische Teile des OEM Corridors (z.B. Deutschland, Tschechien, Österreich und Ungarn) erfuhren aufgrund des Aufkommens von Billigfluggesellschaften und der "neuen" Freiheit beim Kauf des eigenen PKW in den 1990er Jahren zunächst einen erheblichen Rückgang des grenzüberschreitenden Schienenpersonenfernverkehrs. Seit der Jahrtausendwende und teilweise nach dem Beitritt mittel- und osteuropäischer Länder zur Europäischen Union im Jahr 2004 ist eine leichte Renaissance der Eurocity-Züge und die Marktausbreitung von Hochgeschwindigkeits- Bahnprodukten zu verzeichnen. Weitere Länder im östlichen Teil des Korridors haben sich oft nicht vom Rückgang der Schieneninfrastruktur erholt und hinken hinterher. In Griechenland sind die Bedingungen für das System Schiene generell ungünstig (unterschiedliche Spurweiten und Missverhältnis bei Siedlungs- und Bevölkerungsverteilung) und mangelnder Innovation und wurde daher durch den oben genannten PKW-Boom und ansteigendes Luftverkehrsaufkommen negativ beeinflusst. Auch die geografische Randlage Griechenlands in Europa spielt eine Rolle. Der politische Abschwung im ehemaligen Jugoslawien verstärkte diese Situation. Der Beitrag legt dar, dass erhebliche Verbesserungen bei der Servicequalität und der Verkürzung der Reisezeiten ohne fragwürdig hohe Investitionen in den Hochgeschwindigkeitsverkehr auf der Schiene erreicht werden können. Darüber hinaus kann durch einen Ausbau der bestehenden Schieneninfrastruktur vermieden werden, den klassischen Fernverkehr aufzugeben, wie die Entwicklung des Hochgeschwindigkeitsverkehrs andernorts in Europa verdeutlicht

Improving regional passenger rail services

This report reviews the options available for upgrading existing passenger train services, drawing from local and international case studies to inform the conclusions. These case studies illustrate both the range of upgrades available and their effectiveness in increasing rail patronage and mode share. Travellers seek a comfortable, accessible and dependable service with low transit and waiting times which means, for the train provider, delivering reliable, frequent and fast services. These features lie at the heart of upgrades. There is no rule-of-thumb "best" upgrade option: the effectiveness, scope and cost of improvements of each of the service attributes varies between projects, locations and also the travel markets and competing mode attributes

A Track Record of Success: High-Speed Rail Around the World and Its Promise for America

Highlights the economic and transportation benefits of high-speed rail in Japan and Europe, including creating jobs, saving energy, protecting the environment, and encouraging sustainable land use and development. Details lessons for the United States