Merseyside Annual Transport Conference

MERSEYSIDE TRANSPORT CONFERENCE 2008

Merseyside's second annual Transport Conference brought together more than 200 people representing public and private sector organisations that are playing a key role in  planning for a sustainable transport future across the city region.

As Liverpool gears up for its Year of the Environment in 2009, delegates packed into Liverpool Town Hall on October 23 for the conference, which examined transport for a growing city region and highlighted a range of issues that need to be tackled in the future - such as traffic growth and climate change.

Debate at the event centred around managing the increased need to travel without creating unacceptable traffic growth. Keynote speakers included Neil Scales, Chair of the Merseyside Transport Partnership; Joanne Jennings, Chief Executive of Liverpool One; John Whitelegg, Professor of Sustainable Transport at Liverpool John Moores University; and Professor Phil Redmond, Deputy Chair and Creative Director of the Liverpool Culture Company.

Mr Scales introduced the Local Transport Plan Progress Report, and highlighted the fact that overall, there have been real improvements in people's travel experience in and around the city. He said: "Our progress report has highlighted that we have had a large measure of success, and that success has been recognised by government through our Beacon status and in significant extra funding for the area."

He added: "We have excellent programmes in place right across the transport spectrum - from encouraging children to walk to school and making sure that everyone on two wheels is catered for, to major improvements in our capacity to move freight."
An extra three million passengers now use Merseyrail, which is one of the best performing networks in the country. Enhanced City Line capacity, improvements at specific stations and secure station status at 95% of stations, have all been achieved. Plans to improve bus travel continue with punctuality and easier access on to buses being achieved.

TravelWise, which helps people make smarter travel choices, has seen great results in campaigns for more efficient ways to travel to work and to school. Sixty companies are currently signed up to the TravelWise scheme, with more than 160,0000 employees involved.

The region's Bikeability scheme - now the largest in the country - has trained 24,000 young people to ride a bike safely, and the number of road traffic accidents has been considerably reduced, particularly among young people.

All these initiatives have helped reduce delays on the main freight routes throughout Merseyside and slow the increase in traffic growth. But there is still much to be done - with the city's ongoing regeneration comes a whole new set of transport challenges, and the Merseyside Tranpsort Partnership will continue to be the catalyst for ways to resolve these issues as the city moves forward.

Other speakers at the conference demonstrated that transport planning is critically important for the future prosperity of the region. Joanne Jennings said that consideration of all forms of transport was an integral part of the planning of the Liverpool One shopping and leisure development.

And looking beyond the city's year as European Capital of Culture, Phil Redmond, said: "This year, all the fantastic events have created footfall for Merseyside. We have created opportunities for people to move around the region, to appreciate our culture, to spend money and establish a cultural economy. Transport needs to encourage all that movement."