Towards A Northern Powerhouse

A new era for travel in Greater Manchester •

TOWAR DS A NORTHER N POWERHOUSE in association with

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F OR E WOR D

“For me, personally, there is no better symbol of our abilities – or ambitions – than the Metrolink network.”

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WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF A NEW ERA Greater Manchester wants to punch its true weight on the global stage and re-establish the “Northern Powerhouse”. Improved transport connections are central to this ambition and we have shown that we have the ability to deliver here is a growing feeling in Greater Manchester that we are on the cusp of a new era; that what happens in the next few years will find its way into the history books as a notable point in time, similar to news of a new railway between Manchester and Liverpool 185 years ago.

These are, indeed, exciting times that are worthy of such a comparison.

What lies before us is the promise of sustained, targeted investment in our regional transport network – something that is as welcome as it is overdue.

Alongside this sits the prospect of new ways of managing our local

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network, be it the buses, the train stations or the roads.

The blend of these interventions can deliver significant benefits for the people choosing to live, study, work or do business in Greater Manchester and across the North of England.

They are the golden thread that runs throughout the rhetoric because they are the heartbeat of the economy and the goal, ultimately, is to realise our potential as a region; to punch our true weight on the global stage; to re-establish the “Northern Powerhouse” and rebalance the national economy.

But why is Greater Manchester such a focal point? What makes us the candidate to lead the charge for change?

Maybe it is the fact that we have the fastest growing economy in the UK outside London, which means we can deliver the most immediate returns.

Maybe it’s the fact that we’ve been leading the introduction

of new City Region governance arrangements that are crucial to the process.

Maybe it lies in our track record: our proven ability to deliver transformational, aspirational and beneficial programmes.

For me, personally, there is no better symbol of our abilities – or ambitions – than the Metrolink network.

In just over four years, we’ve trebled the size of the original network, not just in miles of track but also in stops and trams: from 19 miles, 26 stops and 26 trams in 1992 to 60 miles, 92 stops and close to 100 trams in 2015 – and there’s still more to come.

In 2014, we broke the 30 million journeys a year mark for the first time – a fantastic testament to the popularity of what we’ve delivered – and we expect to be catering for more than 40 million a year by the end of the decade.

But the Metrolink expansion is just one element of a multi-modal, multi-billion pound investment

programme focused on economic gains.

Driven largely by funding from the people of Greater Manchester, that programme has also included one of the largest traffic signal upgrades in the UK, major new award-winning interchanges that have transformed the gateways to key civic centres, and one of the largest investments in Greater Manchester’s bus priority network in decades.

Alongside this, through our involvement in Rail North, we’ve secured a seat at the table as the new Northern and TransPennine Express rail franchises have evolved – to ensure local knowledge influences how local train services serve local centres.

We’ve also championed High Speed 2 and have played a key role in developing the One North proposals that have since led to the creation of the Transport for the North group.

So we can be trusted to deliver and if we are indeed on the cusp of a new era, it will be a fitting reward for having the courage of our convictions and realising our ambitions.

Councillor Andrew Fender Chair, Transport for Greater Manchester Committee

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T R A N SP ORT F OR G R E AT E R M A NC H E S T E R

THE BEST JOB IN UK TRANSPORT? Jon Lamonte sees huge potential for transport in Greater Manchester s Greater Manchester’s transport supremo, does Jon Lamonte have the most exciting job in UK transport?

He certainly thinks so.

Manchester feels like a city with a momentum behind it, and it was given an extra push last November when the chancellor, George Osborne, agreed a substantial transfer of powers to the region in a deal that will see the creation of a new directly-elected mayor. It has been called “Devo Manc”.

The vision is for the city to become the heart of a “Northern Powerhouse” – a thriving conurbation that will emerge from the shadow of London and deliver strong and sustained economic growth. And at the heart of this agenda is transport.

The Metrolink light rail system – the icon of the city’s transport network – has grown rapidly and now carries 30 million passengers a year.

The creation of a Combined Authority has given its delivery arm, Transport for Greater Manchester, control of the region’s highways for the first time.

The city is embarking on a cycling revolution, with radical new Dutch-style cycling infrastructure planned for the Oxford Road corridor.

High Speed 2 is coming to town, and High Speed 3 is also on the agenda of the new Transport for the North group.

And then there are the new powers that Greater Manchester is set to receive: new powers over local bus services (subject to consultation), and potentially management of the region’s railway stations.

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In the driving seat: Jon Lamonte, chief executive of Transport for Greater Manchester

JON L AMONTE

profile

With a background in the RAF, Jon Lamonte is a relative newcomer to the world of urban transport.

His Air Force career saw him fly various large transport aircraft and command in the Gulf before he took a desk job in Whitehall, a role which gave him useful experience of national policy agenda.

Later, as the finance director for the Ministry of Defence’s £17bn procurement and logistics organisation, he encountered many of the same companies and contractual issues that he deals with today as chief executive of Transport for Greater Manchester.

In 2011 he left to take charge of Tube Lines, the Transport for London subsidiary responsible for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. He left to join TfGM in January 2013, but his 21 months at Tube Lines included London’s hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games.

“Everyone talks about the Games, not the transport, and that’s the success,” he says. “We can do the same here. My success story is if everyone talks about the jobs and the economic growth and all the rest of it. If transport doesn’t appear on the pages of the papers, that’s just fine, because we’ll have done our job.” Q

Since taking over as chief executive of TfGM in January 2013, Lamonte has been tasked with delivering the transport components of the vision for Greater Manchester and its connections with a Northern Powerhouse.

But the former RAF man never loses sight of the mission – economic growth. By investing in improved connectivity, Greater Manchester believes it can create an agglomeration economy that competes with city regions across Europe for investment in jobs.

“We don’t do transport for transport’s sake,” he explains.

“It is designed to fit in with the overall Greater Manchester strategy, to contribute to economic growth and that’s why we’re

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30 million

Metrolink carried over 30 million passengers in 2014

absolutely rigorous in what we do about prioritising the schemes where we’re going to get the most economic benefit.”

It’s the same mantra that London’s transport commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy, uses to make the case for continued investment in the capital’s transport network.

Having headed Transport for London’s Tube Lines infrastructure company for almost two years, Lamonte knows how TfL works.

London has achieved sustained growth in public transport use and Lamonte sees no reason why Greater Manchester cannot achieve the same. When he arrived in the city in 2013, Metrolink carried 22 million passengers a year – that number is now over 30 million and Lamonte expects it to reach 45 million by the end of the decade.

He believes that Metrolink demonstrates TfGM’s capacity to deliver. The system has been adding a new extension at a rate of roughly one every six months. The extension to Manchester Airport became the latest new line to open last November - on budget and a year AHEAD of schedule.

Like other recent extensions it has been funded with the help of a contribution from local Council Tax in the form of a levy – committing local authorities to the future success of the system.

And Lamonte is keen to point out that there’s no subsidy for a trip on Metrolink.

The rapid development of the scheme has equipped TfGM with knowledge and skills that make future expansions easier.

Tram stops have been pre-formed in modules, for example, and utility diversions have become much more efficient by getting the utility companies to work together.

“It sounds like an obvious thing to do, get one person to dig a hole for everybody else, but it actually saved us nine months and nearly 10 million quid,” he says.

Users are flocking to the system, requiring more double-length trams to be operated. Meanwhile, the Second City Crossing that is

currently under construction will enable the passage of 45 trams per hour in each direction through the city centre, providing “the sort of headways that frankly London would dream of ”.

There are plans for further extensions to the intu Trafford Centre via Trafford Park, and under consideration is a route to Port Salford and a loop at the end of the Manchester Airport extension to link-up development opportunities in the area, as well as HS2.

The airport line is regarded as a good example of the case for devolution. TfGM and its Combined Authority partners have the local knowledge about where the development opportunities are in this area.

Referring back to the mission, Lamonte says: “It’s all about economic growth.”

Trams, however, are just one element of the modal mix. Greater Manchester’s local bus services carry more than seven times as many people – 220 million a year.

Since 1986 bus services in Greater Manchester, like everywhere else in Great Britain (outside London), have been deregulated. At the insistence of government, GM Buses, the region’s publicly-owned bus

operator, was divided into two separate companies and sold off to the private sector. Over time GM Buses North ended up as part of FirstGroup while GM Buses South became part of Stagecoach.

First and Stagecoach remain the dominant bus companies, although the region now has around 30 operators. They decide where their buses go and what fares are charged, with TfGM seeking to fill in the gaps through tendering.

This situation could now change. Osborne’s deal for Greater Manchester includes new powers to introduce bus franchising in the region, as in London, a proposal that is subject to a consultation.

Before elaborating on the subject, Lamonte is keen to explain the context. Whilst rail and Metrolink have been rising in patronage at something like 5% year-on-year, annual bus patronage has plummeted from half a billion 40 years ago.

And then back to the mission again: “When we’re searching for economic growth we need a bus network that’s going to grow with it … So we need to look at why that [decline] happened. Part of it is that we don’t have a clearly integrated offer.”

Jon Lamonte says the Metrolink network demonstrates TfGM’s capacity to deliver.

The extension to Manchester Airport opened last November – a year ahead of schedule

This is not a criticism of the region’s bus companies, Lamonte says. He acknowledges that some have been very cost effective, provided good service and have invested in the network. But he believes that franchising would offer improved integration, which will in turn generate extra journeys and help support the local economy.

TfGM wants bus services that link up with each other, and with other modes of transport like trams and trains. And it wants an easy-to-understand ticketing system, allowing seamless travel across all modes of public transport. It wants something that looks and feels a bit like London.

Lamonte doesn’t yet know exactly how TfGM will get there. The expectation is that new legislation will enable it to by-pass the hurdles of implementing a Quality Contract Scheme under the existing 2008 Local Transport Act. The region’s biggest bus operators oppose the plan, claiming that partnership would be a more effective route to achieving TfGM’s objectives.

They say that the reasons for the decline relate to issues outside of their control and that London is a special case. And they warn that TfGM would be taking on additional financial risks.

“I think the evidence is historically that the market was there,” Lamonte responds.

“We’ve seen the network gradually reduce. We know where the development opportunities are going to come.”

Manchester’s growing population, up 19% over the past decade, with especially fast growth among young people, makes the city fertile ground for public transport, says Lamonte. But the offer has to be right.

“If you have an integrated ticketing offer, if you have decent infrastructure through interchanges and all the rest of it, if you have good information, and web apps that give you that sort of journey planning information that you can switch mode to mode,

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T R A N SP ORT F OR G R E AT E R M A NC H E S T E R

people will go for it,” he says. “We know that. London has done it, just look at the rise in patronage that they’ve had.”

In short, he believes that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts.

So does Lamonte believe that he can win the bus companies over to this way of thinking?

“We do think that there’s a great opportunity here because we want to develop the growth to make it a really good bus sector,” he says.

“That’s what we’re about.

“We’re not against any operator, or operators - we are absolutely for the operators. We want to make them a success, but what we’re ultimately trying to do is meet those economic needs, make those links between skills, housing and everything else and do the best thing for the customer. That’s what it’s about.”

In addition to buses, TfGM’s portfolio could also be extended to cover the region’s 96 railway stations under Osborne’s devolution deal. And, as with buses, Lamonte believes that there are opportunities here to exploit.

Over 50 of these stations are

still not accessible to disabled users and many lack PAs, CCTV or customer information screens.

Meanwhile, with the exception of the main stations in the city centre, he believes that commercial opportunities are being missed.

“The growth we’ve seen in rail travel is despite some really poor rolling stock and some really poor stations,” he says. “So we thought wouldn’t it be better if we had local control over the rail stations because we know the local needs, we can start getting into better maintenance regimes.

“Bear in mind that I’ve got 92 Metrolink stops where we’re already providing a range of services, and bus stations. There’s a whole range of infrastructure that we’re already looking after. Could we see some synergies with that?

Could we do that cheaper? Could we look at the commercialisation of assets in a better way?”

Unlike rail franchise holders, Lamonte says TfGM would be able to take a long term view on investment. And he suggests that revenues from the larger city centre stations could be used to cross-subsidise improvements at

GOAL TO TREBLE CYCLING

has an ambitious target to treble the number of journeys made by bicycle.

Getting there will require a whole range of actions to make cycling a more attractive proposition, but TfGM’s efforts will be supported by £20m from its successful Velocity 2025 bid

Can Manchester mimic Amsterdam? Transport for Greater Manchester, the region’s transport co-ordinating body,

“Just watch the people this afternoon that pour out of Piccadilly station and you will see why we absolutely need HS2. So it was a no-brainer really for us to say that on capacity grounds alone – never mind speed – we need another railway.”

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smaller stations.

Lamonte believes that improvements could be made without increasing the funds available and TfGM is currently making its case to the Treasury and the Department for Transport.

The DfT’s Invitation to Tender for the new Northern Rail and TransPennine Express franchises has now been published. Lamonte and his colleagues have lobbied for something more ambitious for Northern Rail than the previous “no growth” franchise that was awarded by the DfT in 2004.

The new franchise will finally see veteran Pacer railbuses phased out.

Lamonte says it must also deliver an “appropriate level of service” and more vigorous revenue protection.

The new Northern Rail and TransPennine Express must meanwhile be capable of taking advantage of the investment that’s going into the Northern Hub and electrification in the North West, enabling faster and more frequent links. “We want to see the express back into TransPennine Express,” he says.

The ITTs for the new franchises

to the government’s Cycle City Ambition fund and other fruitful applications for funding.

TfGM is looking at rolling out about seven cycleways and is aiming to integrate cycling into all of its schemes. For example, the bus priority scheme for the important Oxford Road corridor

will have Dutch-style cycle paths which guide cyclists around the back of bus stops and away from buses (see illustrations).

A visualisation of the scheme has been viewed over 13,000 times on YouTube and the feedback has largely been positive, despite the reallocation of road space away

Manchester Piccadilly station

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68 minutes

Journey times to London will be reduced to 68 minutes when HS2 reaches Manchester

have also begun the process of providing local services in the north of England that will help to maximise the value gained from the billions to be invested in High Speed 2, which will initially link London and Birmingham but eventually reach Manchester.

TfGM is a keen supporter of HS2, believing it will provide a level of connectivity that the West Coast Main Line and its Victorian infrastructure cannot match. Even if the WCML could be upgraded, he asks whether it would be acceptable for growing cities to be left without this route at weekends for a period of 14 years.

“Just watch the people this afternoon that pour out of Piccadilly station and you will see why we absolutely need it,” he says.

“So it was a no-brainer really for us to say that on capacity grounds alone - never mind speed - we need another railway.”

TfGM’s Piccadilly Place headquarters in central Manchester overlooks the area that will benefit from the construction of the new HS2 station alongside the existing Piccadilly terminal.

From 2033, or perhaps before,

from the private car.

Jon Lamonte, TfGM’s chief executive, is particularly enthusiastic about the work that is being done with cycle hubs and bicycle parking. Bicycle storage and showering facilities are vital when trying to persuade local businesses to embrace cycling,

London will be just 68 minutes away – one hour less than the standard journey time today.

Lamonte sees huge potential for regeneration around the new station and believes that 30,000 additional jobs could be created.

He also believes that the new HS2 station at Manchester Airport will boost development there.

And now High Speed 3 is also on the agenda. Championed by Osborne, this new east-west link aims to speed up journeys between the big cities of the North, so that travelling between them is like travelling within a single global city.

Lamonte cites the example of the link between Manchester and Leeds. There are just 38 miles between the two, roughly the same as the length of London’s Central Line, but current rail journeys take between 48 and 55 minutes to complete, if they are running on time.

“If you talk to various people up and down this office you’ll find stories of people taking anything up to two hours to do the journey,” he says. “Well that’s just nonsense. Not only the journey time but the frequency of service.

It just cannot be.”

The new Transport for the North grouping, which TfGM is part of, will work with Network Rail and the Department for Transport to find a solution to this problem.

Is HS3 a more urgent requirement than HS2?

“It’s not an either/or,” says Lamonte. “These have to be things that are both delivered.”

Both projects demonstrate the current political consensus around investing in cities and transport infrastructure.

“Transport is one of those key interventions that can make a real difference and it’s one of those things that you just cannot turn the tap off for years and then turn on again,” he says. “You just need that progressive, steady, incremental approach to investment.”

Lamonte likens this steady, consistent investment to that of the Victorian era in which Manchester thrived, and he points out that the world’s first intercity train linked Manchester and Liverpool.

“It kind of feels like the same thing’s happening again - 185

years on,” he says. “It’s that sort of transformational change and that’s great to be part of.”

TfGM has expanded in line with the additional responsibilities it has taken on, which even include rolling out superfast broadband across the region – connectivity in a broader sense. The organisation now employs around 800 people, which include some who are being seconded from consultants, such as delivery partner Parsons Brinkerhoff.

An expanding remit in a growing city, backed up by sustained investment and a political consensus. Is this the best job in UK transport?

“I don’t think there is a bigger challenge in the country and I don’t think there is a better time to be doing it,” he says. “Having come from a short time in Transport for London, to come up here and take on this sort of agenda is fantastic.

“The opportunities are enormous, the potential is brilliant, so who wouldn’t want to be up here doing it? It’s great and I’m fortunate I’ve got a great team to be able to deliver on all of this.” Q

City Tower Cycle Hub, Piccadilly Gardens

he says, “because the last thing you want is to cycle in through the wet and mud and you’ve got nowhere to change or shower”.

TfGM is also offering training on how to ride bicycles and how to maintain them, and to address safety concerns TfGM has worked with Greater Manchester Police

to address issues at hotspots.

Police have pulled over motorists and cyclists who’ve made errors and given them advice.

“It’s all part of trying to get people into the right behaviours and the right education and then we’ve got a decent proposition for rolling out cycling,” he says. Q

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R AT P M E T ROL I N K

DEVOLUTION AGENDA SPEAKS RATP’S LANGUAGE Metrolink’s French operator is comfortable working for a strong public authority he vision to build a “Northern Powerhouse”, driven by strong local leadership and with an integrated transport system at its heart, is music to the ears of RATP Dev. Empowered mayors who consider transport policy in the context of wider social and urban planning objectives is familiar territory for the French transport group.

RATP Dev has held the concession to operate Greater Manchester’s Metrolink light rail system since August 2011 and is very comfortable working to meet the aspirations of its public sector client, Transport for Greater Manchester.

“If you look at our DNA as RATP Dev, that’s what we do. We do public transport as a public service,” explains Tim Jackson, CEO of RATP Dev’s operations in Great Britain and Ireland.

“It’s absolutely core to our corporate ethos that we regard the local authority as our partner and our client in running transport.

“We’re providing the service.

We have the expertise. They have the requirement.”

In Manchester, the requirement has been to maintain an excellent service to passengers during an overhaul of both the rolling stock and infrastructure and amid a period of major network expansion.

Jackson, who joined RATP Dev a year ago, was “stunned” to learn about what the Metrolink team has achieved in recent years.

The number of passengers carried each year is now more than 30 million – around a third higher than it was when RATP Dev took over the operation.

A brand new depot opened at

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Old Trafford in June 2011 and is now home to the network’s control centre.

The original AnsaldoBreda rolling stock has been replaced by a new fleet of 93 M5000 trams, built by Bombardier and Vossloh Kiepe, and a further 27 units are on order. The signalling system has also been replaced.

And this has all been achieved during a period of breakneck network expansion, with a new extension opening roughly every

six months. The network now covers 92 kilometres, making it by far the biggest tramway in the UK. The latest route to open, in November last year, was the £368m extension to Manchester Airport – its 14.5km length is on its own longer than the 14km Edinburgh tram line.

Amidst all of the potential distractions – including 50 timetable changes over the past year – Metrolink is running 99% of its scheduled daily 1,300 journeys,

The driver simulator has helped to speed up driver training times for Metrolink

SIMUL ATING SUCCESS The trebling of Manchester’s Metrolink light rail network over the past five years has of course been accompanied by an equivalent expansion of its team of tram drivers, which now numbers around 300.

Keeping pace with the expansion of the network has been a challenge - the extension to Manchester Airport opened one year ahead of schedule. Part of RATP Dev’s approach to meeting this challenge has been to work with a specialist software developer and Transport for Greater Manchester to create a realistic driver simulator.

Metrolink’s operation expansion manager, Gary Scanlon, from Bolton, helped to develop the software. He walked the routes taking photographs to make the simulator as realistic as possible. As a former driver he knew that if a detail was not right the drivers would pick up on it. The result is impressive. With graphics akin to what you might expect on a new Playstation release, every tree, shop front and track loop appears as you would see it in real life.

It enables more than one driver to be trained at one time and tracks every detail of the driver’s performance, making it easy to identify and work on problem areas. Q

despite the added challenge of operating 90-second headways through Manchester’s congested city centre.

Jackson believes that few transport groups possess the engineering and technical capabilities that have enabled RATP Dev to deliver this long list of achievements. State-owned RATP is of course best known as the operator of public transport in Paris, which includes bus, tram, train and metro services.

However, its RATP Dev subsidiary, which runs services outside the French capital, is now active in 14 countries and contributes 900m euros a year towards the 5bn euros annual turnover of RATP Group.

RATP aims at becoming the world’s biggest tram operator, operating tramways on four continents (see panel). But while this experience equips RATP to deal with the engineering challenges, Jackson says that a can-do mentality is also a key part of the group’s offer.

For example, the Metrolink extension to Manchester Airport opened a year ahead of schedule, presenting a challenge to RATP Dev – would it have the required number of trained drivers to operate the service on the soonerthan-anticipated opening date?

RATP Dev found a way of achieving it. The operator invested in a new driver simulator (see panel), which has enabled it to slash training times and reduce the amount of time that trainees spend out on the network.

“TfGM is very demanding but they are right to be very demanding because that’s their prerogative as the PTA. They take very seriously their responsibility as a public body and want to ensure the people of Greater Manchester receive a transport

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92 km

The Metrolink network now covers 92 kilometres, making it by far the biggest tramway in the UK system they can be proud of,” says Jackson. “We work with them to deliver it. That’s what we’re about.”

RATP Dev will be hoping that it has done sufficient to impress TfGM over the past three and half years to retain the concession to operate Metrolink. The current contract expires in 2017 and the tendering process is expected to begin later this year.

But the new tram deal isn’t the only contract that RATP Dev has an eye on in Greater Manchester.

The announcement last November by chancellor George Osborne that a new directly elected mayor for the region will have powers to introduce bus franchising will potentially offer a new opportunity for the group to grow the £300m a year of revenues that it already generates in the UK. Under the current deregulated system, private bus operators decide when and where services operate. Franchising would see TfGM assume control of local bus services in the conurbation, as Transport for London does in the capital, and the network would probably be broken up into clusters of routes for which private operators would then submit competing bids to operate.

RATP Group already operates over 1,000 buses in London’s regulated bus market (around 12% of the fleet) and a further 4,000 in Paris. It also has a foothold in Greater Manchester’s bus market through Selwyns Travel, a Runcorn-based coach operator it acquired in March 2013. This 90-vehicle company has depots

Tim Jackson joined RATP Dev last year

in Manchester (near the airport), Runcorn and St Helens, and could give RATP Dev a useful platform from which to bid for bus contracts - Jackson says it’s “a brilliant operation, really, really well run”.

“We are very committed to this part of England, to the North,” says Jackson.

“You show us a really complicated, big urban challenge, we can do it.”

Those big urban challenges keep coming for Metrolink.

This year will see the roll out of smart ticketing on the network following a trial among holders of concessionary travel passes. 'get me there’ is TfGM’s answer to London’s ubiquitous Oyster card. Jackson, who himself lives in London, is enthusiastic about the potential.

“I don’t know of a Londoner that doesn’t have an Oyster card,” he says. “Once you’ve got an Oyster card in everyone’s pocket, then they do just use the transport system more and that’s where TfGM is going with get me there.

When it launches, get me there will be one of the world’s most advanced smart-ticketing systems.

“It’s no coincidence that they’re piloting that with Metrolink as it’s the system most under their control. If they get control of the buses, then clearly there’s an opportunity.”

RATP Dev welcomes the move towards a more continental view of public transport as an instrument of public policy, and the political consensus that is backing that up.

Jackson believes the result may be a paradigm shift for UK public transport.

“In the 1980s you had bus privatisation and deregulation, in the 1990s you had rail privatisation,” he says, “To me the big story [today] seems to be about city regions and devolution. That’s the political driver at the moment - an elected mayor for the big cities. If you look at our domestic situation in France, that’s not new for us. We’ve been doing that for years.” Q

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GLOBAL TRAM OPERATIONS CARRY 1.7 MILLION PASSENGERS A DAY x

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Operator: Casa Tram City: Casablanca Country: Morocco Opened: 2012 Lines: 1 Length: 31km Stations: 48 Rolling stock: 74 Alstom Citadis Daily ridership: 100,000 Status: 100% RATP Dev

2 Operator: GEST City: Florence Country: Italy Opened: 2010 Lines: 1 (2 more are under construction) Length: 7 Stations: 14 Rolling stock: 17 AnsaldoBreda Sirio Daily ridership: 35,000 Status: RATP Dev (51%), ATAF (49%)

3 Operator: Hong Kong Tramways City: Hong Kong Country: China Opened: 1904 Lines: 1 Length: 30km Stations: 119 Rolling stock: 163 double-decker trams Daily ridership: 210,000 Status: 50/50 joint venture between RATP Dev and Transdev

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Operator: SETRAM Cities: Algiers, Constantine and Oran Country: Algeria Opened: 2011 (Algiers)

and 2013 (Constantine and Oran) Lines: 3 (1 in each city) Length: 47km (Algiers 23km, Constantine 8km, Oran 19km) Stations: 75 (Algiers 32, Constantine 10, Oran 32) Rolling stock: 105 Alstom Citadis (Algiers 48, Constantine 27, Oran 30) Daily ridership: 117,000 (Algiers 60,000, Constantine 25,000, Oran 32,000) Status: A Franco-Algerian consortium led by RATP Dev

7 System: Shenyang Tramway City: Shenyang Country: China Opened: 2013 Lines: 3 Length: 70km Stations: 65 Rolling stock: 30 CNR Corp trams Daily ridership: 150,000 Status: 51% owned by city and 49% by RATP Dev/ Transdev joint venture

8 System: DC Streetcar City: Washington DC Country: USA Opened: imminent Lines: 1 Length: 3km Stations: 7 Rolling stock: 6 trams (3 Inekon, 3 United Streetcar) Status: 100% RATP Dev

9 System: Sun Link Tucson Streetcar

City: Tucson, Arizona Country: USA Opened: 2014 Lines: 1 Length: 6km Stations: 23 Rolling stock: 8 United Streetcar Daily ridership: 5,000 Status: 100% RATP Dev

10 System: Metrolink City: Manchester Country: UK Opened: 1992 (operated

by RATP Dev since 2011) Lines: 7 Length: 92km Stations: 92 Rolling stock: 93 Bombardier M5000s (with a further 27 units on order) Daily ridership: 80,000 Status: 100% RATP Dev

11 System: RATP City: Paris Country: France Opened: 1992 Lines: 8 Length: 96km Stations: 175 Daily ridership: 1 million Status: 100% RATP

12 System: Tramway de Valenciennes City: Valenciennes Country: France Opened: 2006 Lines: 2 Length: 18km Stations: 48 Rolling stock: 21 Alstom Citadis Daily ridership: 29,000 Status: 100% RATP Dev

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F I R S T M A NC H E S T E R

Alongside significant investment in new buses (above), First has supported the Manchester Pride event (top right) and operates a TfGM fleet of electric buses in the city centre (right)

FIRST BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO GREATER MANCHESTER The last four years have seen something of a reinvention across FirstGroup’s UK bus businesses, with the group looking to empower local subsidiaries and stimulate growth n Greater Manchester, there have been significant changes at First Manchester. This change of emphasis aims to create an environment that will foster growth and, led by Teresa Broxton, First Manchester’s managing director, it has been a busy period for the operator with a number of radical, new initiatives that have breathed new life into the business.

Broxton is a strong believer in having the right team around her and her first priority in the role was to appoint Ian Humphreys as head of commercial and Tracy Green as head of human resources.

Humphreys has considerable

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commercial experience of bus operations and is instrumental in creating the strategy that aims to deliver growth. Green is a newcomer to buses having joined from the energy sector. She says: “Our people strategy plays a critical part in our aim to become a truly ‘customer centric’ business.”

The senior team also includes a head of finance and six depot business managers, who lead the end-to-end operational process to deliver high levels of customer service. Care is taken to ensure that every business decision takes into account the impact on each depot and the company overall.

Broxton’s strategy is to grow First Manchester through innovation and by building a truly customer centric business, supporting the vision of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Humphreys shares her view. He says: “The foundations we have in place demonstrate that

we want to be part of a long-term, successful and sustainable Greater Manchester, and we’re committed to and ready to make that happen.”

As part of First’s strategy to align their business with the vision of the Combined Authority, they are increasingly engaging with developers and land use planners.

Humphreys explains that this will help the company interface with land use and planning processes and examine wider issues than just the operation of local bus services.

Delivering greater value for money for customers through price reductions and a continued focus on improving service delivery has been central to this strategy. This is a focus that has been welcomed by staff, close partners Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and First’s customers. Work undertaken

by Passenger Focus as part of the watchdog’s annual Bus Passenger Survey revealed a significant improvement in satisfaction scores.

Overall passenger satisfaction increased from 79% in 2012 to 84% in 2014, with value for money scores also increasing over the same period for all fare-paying passengers by 33 percentage points.

The introduction of new, targeted and improved value tickets for customers has helped increase commercial volumes travelling on First buses by over 5% in the last 12 months. These changes are not just about cutting prices, First is also creating new travel opportunities. In January 2015 the operator launched a new £10 weekly ticket for young people aged between 16 and 18.

Available on the group’s increasingly successful m-ticketing smartphone app, the new product builds on the wider ticketing range which the operator introduced in May 2014.

Take up of the new young person’s ticket has been encouraging with the operator planning a series of marketing initiatives to raise awareness.

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£10 per week

In January 2015 the operator launched a new £10 weekly ticket for young people aged between 16 and 18 Humphreys says that this is a key market for the operator and the new product closes a gap in the existing product mix. “We want to provide more young people with easy and affordable access to the benefits of educational and training opportunities and this new ticket will really help us to achieve that,” he says.

The new offer also aligns First Manchester to the strategic goal of its parent company, a key focus of which is young people, and aims to provide an alternative to car ownership. As Broxton notes: “Our objective is to change the perception of the bus for the next generation - to engage with young people to drive a behavioural change in travel so that we become their preferred transport solution.”

Customers have also welcomed both network-wide and local fare initiatives. In April 2013 substantial reductions were made to the operator’s range of period tickets, including the FirstDay ticket, which reduced by 11% from £4.50 to £4.00 and the FirstWeek ticket, slashed from £18.00 to £13.00, a substantial 28% reduction. Since then the operator has held these fares at a low level with only marginal, annual increases.

Meanwhile, the operator has also been testing the market with targeted price cuts, such as a £10 weekly saver ticket on one corridor between Little Hulton and Manchester that aims to stimulate further growth. Rusholme has also seen the development of a low fares strategy for the Wilmslow Road corridor with the introduction of a £1 fare which, following a successful trial, is now part of the permanent ticket range.

There has also been an increased focus on promoting the benefits of the First high frequency network.

“Our industry needs to shout out louder about the benefits of bus travel, we are the life blood of our communities and have a key part to play in unlocking economic growth and cutting carbon emissions,” says Broxton.

It's a year since the acquisition of EYMS Group’s Finglands bus

business, based at Rusholme in the south of the city, a purchase that has allowed First to expand in the south of the city, including the busy Wilmslow Road corridor, and further develop cross-city services.

The first step to establishing these links was made in late 2012, prior to the Finglands acquisition, when First extended its service 18 from Langley and Middleton to Manchester city centre via Piccadilly and Oxford Road to the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Rusholme has allowed First to expand on that link with the introduction of the new CrossConnect brand.

Service 42, which previously connected the city centre with East Didsbury in the south of the city via Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road, has been extended northwards via Cheetham Hill to the North Manchester General Hospital. David Shurden, the business manager at Rusholme, notes that the corridor north from the city centre towards Cheetham Hill has always seen high levels of bus use, and the extension of the 42 has supplemented existing First Manchester services.

Meanwhile, service 41 between the city centre and Sale and West Didsbury has also been extended and routed across the city centre towards Eccles, creating a vital link between the Manchester and Salford university communities.

The launch of Rusholme was also backed up by significant investment, with new buses for the CrossConnect network.

Meanwhile, Rusholme depot has also grown substantially in scope and scale, with 59 buses now based at the facility and over 50 new driving roles created since February 2014. It means that the operation is today a far larger business than that acquired.

This investment in new vehicles has been replicated elsewhere across First Manchester, indeed in 2014 £12m was spent on 61 new buses.

This builds on the significant £20m investment in 102 new buses made in 2012 where the operator was a major beneficiary of an influx of new buses that had been previously deployed on special services for the Olympic Games. It means that 740 vehicles in the fleet now have an average age of under seven years.

The operator is also working in partnership with TfGM on a series of initiatives, such as introducing a small fleet of electric buses on the city centre Metroshuttle services and First has also agreed to commercially register a number of local bus service journeys previously funded by TfGM, including some night services, reducing the impact of public sector spending cuts. Meanwhile, First and TfGM have also recently signed up to a voluntary bus partnership on the A579 corridor.

Plans are already in place to further develop the business throughout 2015, including investment in Automatic Vehicle Location technology, real time information and Wi-Fi across the

Teresa Broxton (left) and David Shurden cut the cake on Rusholme depot's first birthday

operation, initiatives designed to significantly enhance the customer experience.

Planning is also at an advanced stage for the launch of the Leigh guided busway, which will improve travel links and journey times between Leigh, Salford and Manchester. First has been awarded the contract and will be investing £4.5m in a fleet of new lowemission vehicles to operate along the 14-mile bus priority route. “First has a great track record of delivering high quality, reliable services and we look forward to working in partnership with TfGM and local councils to provide innovative travel solutions for our new and existing customers,” notes Broxton.

She and her team believe that their employees are the key to their success. In 2014, the Bolton depot successfully launched a national FirstGroup driver training programme and the operator has also developed a leadership programme for its front line supervisors and managers.

The Manchester team has also partnered with Bolton College to launch a new customer service apprenticeship leading to a PCV driver qualification.

There are also regular customer engagement events across Greater Manchester, where there is an opportunity to discuss service improvements and seek and listen to feedback from customers. In August 2014 First also supported Manchester Pride and it has been working with Brake, the national road safety charity, including support of Road Safety Week.

“We are an empowered team and we’ve really changed our thinking, we are starting to change perceptions,” says Broxton.

“We acknowledge that we are only at the beginning of the journey to become an active player in the long-term, successful and sustainable future of the region.

“We believe we are in a strong position to help unlock the economic benefits that devolution will bring to Greater Manchester through our continued close partnership working with TfGM.” Q

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NORT H E R N R A I L

TRANSFORMATION OF THE RAIL NET WORK WILL DRIVE NORTHERN ECONOMY Over the past 10 years, patronage on Northern Rail services has increased 50% on railway infrastructure that has remained largely unchanged. The company now carries 95 million passengers per year, and while additional carriages have been cascaded to the franchise, the extra capacity has not kept pace with rising demand. In Manchester, the busiest part of the rail network in the north of England, 16% of passengers arriving on morning peak trains are standing he most pressing issue facing Northern Rail during the last decade has been finding ways to cater for the surge in business driven by the changing economy of the region’s cities and the improved reliability of rail travel, rather than actively seeking to attract more customers.

However, over the next five years, the company’s planning and programmes director, Rob Warnes, expects Northern to redefine itself as a business with very different priorities. The change will be driven by extensive remodelling of the railway around Manchester and across the North West.

By 2019, planned infrastructure works will provide the capability for an additional 700 trains per day to run into and out of the city - many on newly-electrified routes, enabling more customers to travel in greater comfort, on faster services to a larger range of destinations. New crosscity connections will make rail commuting and business journeys between Manchester suburbs, the

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Top: Rob Warnes, Northern Rail's planning and programmes director, (right) and Martin Jurkowski, Network Rail's principal sponsor, with the first electric train to operate between Liverpool and Manchester Airport. Above: Visualisation of redeveloped Victoria station

city centre, and to destinations across the north of England, a quicker and more practical option, bolstering the economy of the city region and the North as a whole. As many as 30,000 new jobs are expected to be created as a result. Up to 44 million more trips per year on Northern’s services are forecast, depending on the additional rolling stock the government provides when the next franchise is let in 2016.

For Warnes, the infrastructure programme amounts to a

transformation of the network with the opportunity for “more trains, faster trains, better trains and new journey choices”. It means the focus of Northern’s business is expected to change fundamentally.

“Our mantra should shift from largely looking to accommodate more and more passengers to actively driving demand and economic growth through the way rail connects businesses and communities,” he explains.

The initial changes began in early March when Northern

started running the first electric services on the route between Liverpool and Manchester Airport, albeit three months later than scheduled due to delayed electrification works.

Refurbished Class 319 electric trains, cascaded from the Thameslink franchise, are doubling the capacity provided by existing services previously operated with 30-year old Pacer trains and provide a greatly enhanced ride quality. Northern is also launching its Conductor of the Future programme on the route, offering a more visible staff presence and greater level of customer care.

Once the new electric services have bedded in, Northern anticipates using the superior acceleration of electric trains to speed up journey times.

While the Class 319s may be 27 years old, Warnes believes customers will find that the new services are unrecognisable compared to the ones they replace.

“If you are on a Pacer one day and step onto a 319 the next it is a world apart and starts to show people in the North West what the future of local rail could be like,” he says.

That future will start to be rolled out within months on other routes, starting with services between Wigan and Liverpool and followed by those between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool.

By the end of 2016, further electrification is due to be completed between Manchester and Preston to the west, and on the TransPennine ManchesterLeeds-York route to the east by the end of 2018. Further works will include electrification of the line from Wigan to Bolton, which

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NORT H E R N R A I L

Warnes views as a key addition, not least because it will prevent low acceleration diesel units on local stopping services holding up longer distance trains. The current schedule will see six of the 10 core radial routes into Manchester electrified, with a government task force examining the potential for further electrification.

At the same time, Northern Hub infrastructure remodelling projects have started in a programme which Warnes likens to the “Thameslink of the North” in enabling more trains to travel across Manchester.

A key project will be delivery of the Orsdall Chord, a new section of railway which will link Manchester’s main stations – Victoria in the north and Piccadilly and Oxford Road in the south – for the first time. It will free up capacity by enabling through trains to operate across Manchester, connect the north and south of the city, and provide a direct link from the North East and Yorkshire to the city’s airport.

“So this is about more than the network in Manchester,” says Warnes. “It is also about providing brand new connectivity across the North of England, for example for places like Bradford and Halifax through to south Manchester and the airport. It means businesses in West Yorkshire will have access to national and international markets through the key hub in Manchester that wasn’t available before, and that will simply feed economic growth.”

Further new capacity will be provided through two new platforms for through services at Manchester Piccadilly, reconfiguration of the infrastructure around Oxford Road station to cater for more and longer trains, and new track on the approach to Manchester Victoria.

A series of projects will address other bottlenecks across the North West network. For example, work is underway to reinstate the four-track section of railway between Roby and Huyton, and a new platform will be built at Rochdale. In both cases the

NEW PRESSURES SET TO EMERGE WITHIN A DECADE I the mid-2020s, Rob Warnes In believes pressures will again emerge on the north of England rail network, despite planned infrastructure projects potentially providing for up to 44 million more trips per year.

In particular, he expects the TransPennine Manchester-Leeds route to be approaching capacity.

The current TransPennine electrification programme also includes works at Huddersfield and Leeds stations to increase capacity and projects to raise linespeeds, but it will still be a two track railway with finite

capacity. At that point, he suggests a four-track railway to fully separate longer distance and local trains will be necessary, as is common in the south east of England.

“There will come a time when you have to look at something completely different to improve journey times and capacity further between the key urban centres, which is where the Northern Powerhouse proposal for HS3 [a new cross Pennine railway] needs to be considered,” he says.

He adds that the case for HS3 is further strengthened by

An artist's impression of the Ordsall Chord, which will link Piccadilly and Victoria stations

KEY BENEFITS FROM NORTHERN HUB WORKS tQ Two new fast trains per hour between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool Q Six fast trains per hour between Leeds and Manchester Q Leeds-Manchester journey times reduced by 10 minutes Q Liverpool-

Manchester journey times reduced by 10-15 minutes Q New direct services through Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport Q Faster journeys and better connections from Manchester to Sheffield, the East

Midlands, Chester, Bradford, Halifax, Hull and the North East Q Over £4bn of wider economic benefits to the region Q Potentially 20,000 to 30,000 new jobs Q £4 boost to the economy for every £1 spent on the works

the benefits it would bring in improving connections to the HS2 line that will link London, the Midlands and the North.

“If you don’t keep improving the local and regional rail network you will not spread the benefits of HS2 across the North, which is where HS3 really comes in,” he says. “It is ensuring cities like Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield on the HS2 network have really good connectivity to regional centres across the north so places like Bradford, Rochdale and Skipton really benefit from faster journey times to London.

That achieves what government really wants HS2 to do which is closing the economic gap between the North and London.” Q intention is to separate local and longer distance services.

As part of the process of capitalising on the new infrastructure, Warnes says the onus will be on the operators of the new Northern and TransPennine Express franchises to introduce modernised smart ticketing, new retailing systems and more dynamic marketing.

During its interim two-year franchise, Northern has started mobile ticketing trials as part of that evolution, along with extension of Advance Purchase tickets. Development of these services is expected to contribute to web sales rising from 1% to as much as 10% of revenue over the next two years. Warnes anticipates that, in addition to requirements to continue modernising retailing and marketing, the next long term franchise will include a significant upgrade to stations on radial routes into Manchester, alongside contributing to the planned redevelopment of Manchester Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria stations as iconic landmarks. “We need to be looking to consistently provide the standards customers really want across all aspects of our service to capitalise on this transformation of the railway,” he says. Q

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Q www.passengertransport.co.uk Q www.tfgm.com Q www.firstgroup.com/ukbus Q www.northernrail.org Q www.ratpdev.co.uk

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