John Spellar MP, the Minister for Transport, recently visited Nottingham to see tracks for the new tram being laid and to meet representatives of the City Council and business. (09 Nov 01)
During his visit, I took civil servants on a quick tour of the Nottingham city centre, highlighting recent changes. That quick tour is recreated (in cyberspace) below.
Meanwhile for an overview of Nottingham's transport policy, please see ....
A quick tour of Nottingham City Centre
Starting at Capital One (based on Station St.), a recent arrival in Nottingham who employ many hundreds of people.
Capital One run a successful commuters plan which encourages the use of public transport and reduces the need for car parking provision.
Capital One are expanding and their new extension will face the terminal of Line One of the NET on the Trent St. viaduct (shown).
Also shown is one of the 600 bus shelters provided & maintained by JCDecaux in an agreement with the City Council in return for the street advertising.
Visiting Capital One (like many places in the city centre) for an hour or so has been made much easier with the introduction of on-street pay and display meters.
The meters started in April 2001 and are battery powered - the batteries being topped up from solar panels working from the ambient light. (Batteries and solar power and radio commns avoided the need to dig up the pavements to provide power and comms cables.)
Revenue from the machines pays for the City Council's own wardens to patrol the bays and most of the fines also go to the City Council.
The new pay and display zones have meant that abuse of 1 hour waiting areas has been dramatically cut.
From October 2002, the City Council has been policing all traffic regulation orders, with fines paying for the staff required. A key target is the inconsiderate parking that obstructs public transport and blocks pavements and junctions.
A new vision is required for the railway station.
Train passengers often find that their trains stop half way down the long platforms, alongside the pedestrian bridge and well away from the main station entrance.
Trams will first arrive and then pass over the middle of the station (with lines 2, 3 and maybe 4 of the NET).
Passengers arriving by car also walk to their trains via the bridge.
The City Council, in conjunction with rail companies and developers have started a £100,000 study to explore ideas for a new station.
Part of the study will need to address capacity problems at Nottingham. For instance trains can only use platforms 3 & 4 one at a time (unless they're leaving in the same direction). Changes to track layout to allow trains to pass each other between these platforms is a simple way to increase throughput.
Other measures are needed to stop rail services being so vulnerable to blockages caused by trains failing between the Up Goods and Up Main lines (towards Beeston).
Other ideas include 2 new bay platforms at the west end of the car park.
Cycle lockers were recently introduced at the station car park.
Queens Road was recently reconstructed. Nearing the end of its existing life, the Council decided to rebuild it before it was opened to complete the new Southern Relief Route (on 16 Nov 01).
The Southern Relief Route will encourage traffic away from Canal St. The quick benefit is to allow greater priority to pedestrians and buses crossing Canal St.; the longer term aim is to close Collin St. and to allow the expansion of the Broad Marsh shopping centre.
The Southern Relief Route arrives at the current main entrance to the railway station. Part of the city's cycle lane network is also shown.
A new taxi, registered since September.
Nottingham's Hackney Carriages have to be of this style - the 'London style' - to maximise comfort for passengers and to be accessible to wheelchair users. The number of Hackney Carriage licences is to be increased over the next year or so to meet the existing demand.
The new City Loop - a prioritised routes for buses through the city centre - starts at the railway station.
Nottingham City Transport have supported this idea with the introduction of new services that loop the city centre, coloured turquoise, or blue or green. These services then allow a hop-on hop-off interchange with all their services to and from the city centre.
To support this, NCT have introduced a £2 all day ticket and the bus card, based on smartcard technology (pictured). (Nottingham is currently the second largest user of smart cards in Europe.)
Following the City Loop around, we reach Middle Hill, alongside which the new NET viaduct is being built.
Below and around this viaduct, a new public transport interchange will be built alongside the new Broad Marsh Shopping Centre, paid for by the developers.
A bus stop sign on Fletchergate shows the large number of bus services using the City Loop including NCT's turquoise, blue and green services.
To give buses easier passage, a yellow box has been introduced to help prevent cars queuing to use Fletchergate car park from blocking the road.
Hockley.
The right turn from Fletchergate and the left turn into George St. can only be made by buses and Hackney carriages.
These junctions mark the start of the city centre's new Clear Zone (from the east).
The Clear Zone introduces more pedestrianisation in the city centre as well as making space for the first line of the NET.
Where to catch your bus
A poster display on one of the bus shelters on Angel Row, showing the locations of the new bus interchanges and listing the services that reach destinations across the city.
NCT introduced dramatic changes to their network on 30th September, 2001.
Most eye-catching is the colour-coding of NCT's network and the re-painting of buses to reflect the services they serve.
The colour-coded services all interchange in the city centre and are designed to help new or potential users of the buses to understand how the NCT network works.
Services from the city centre leave at regular intervals (clock-face timing) and there's a new range of services after 11p.m.
Services will be upgraded to the "Go2" service by routes; starting with the Lilacs (pictured left), "Go2" services are 10 minute frequency services, all served by low-floor buses.
Also pictured is the Red Circular, serving Mapperley, Gedling & Netherfield; and the Lime, serving Mapperley Park, Sherwood and Arnold.
Lime services are soon to see the introduction of the articulated bus.
Recent trends in bus passenger use have found a greater preference for standing amongst some sections of passengers, and a much stronger dislike of using the upper deck of a double decker.
The rear end of the bus has independent steering to allow it to move flush with the kerb without requiring more free roadside than a conventional double-decker.
NCT's new travel centre.
Introduced to support the changes and to provide a dedicated shop for bus pass renewals and providing information.
Elsewhere in the city
One major initiative, outside the city centre, is the reconstruction of nearly 2 miles of Hucknall Road.
Costing over £1 million, it's been made possible by the significant increases in capital sums for road restoration provided by the Labour Gov't.
2001's £4 million is double 2000's sum, which was double the previous year's sum, which in turn was triple what was provided in the last year of the last Tory Gov't.
£2 million is being used for Hucknall Road and Queens Road;
£1 million for footpath restorations; and
£1 million for bridge strengthening and improved lighting.
The Hucknall Road scheme includes more cycle lanes and pedestrian priority at junctions.
The full Local Transport Plan is available on the web (see 'Links'). The first Annual Progress Report (2001) was published in the summer and shows that whilst there were more jobs in Nottingham, and unemployment in Nottingham had fallen, the number of journeys by car into the city centre had also fallen over the first year.
The new tram will dramatically reduce car commuting; the changes to the bus services are also geared to increasing the number of passengers; new rail suburban rail services could also help. However, whilst 80% of employee car parking spaces in the city are free to the user, and the revenues are not available to subsidise services to locations away from the city centre, it will be difficult to make enough progress.
And more progress will be needed, partly because car ownership will grow, party because the road network is vulnerable to long jams if an incident on the local roads (or even the M1) should occur, and partly because exhaust fumes from traffic are causing health problems (most particularly on the Ring Road between the junctions serving the QMC & Nottingham University and Boots).
The demand to use the car has to be managed. Solutions include -
- making Nottingham a more attractive place to live and learn, so there is less travel to work;
- allocating more road space to public transport; and
- charging for parking at workplaces.
For roughly 75p a day charged to each user, the Workplace Parking Levy will allow the City Council to spend £6 million a year on commuter plan initiatives, more bus services (to more locations and earlier in the day) as well as supporting and under-writing plans to expand the tram network and provide more trains.
Alan Clark & Brian Grocock, colleagues on Nottingham City Council.
Alan Clark was the Executive member for Environment, Planning and Transport matters.
Brian Grocock was the Chair of the Environment Policy Development and Review Committee, which includes street cleaning and licensing of Hackney carriages.
(Last updated 2004-04-13)
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