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CITY REGION BOUNDARIES STUDY

CHAPTER FOUR TRANSPORT LINKS

4.1 There are two main ways of describing the overall characteristics of transport links as: demand for travel between locations; or the accessibility of locations. Travel times by road and rail are simple accessibility indicators and define the geography of the transport systems. Comprehensive travel demand indicators include all people and are measured as the numbers travelling in cars, buses, trains, ferries, and aeroplanes.

4.2 Appendix B looks at the results of analyses using both these approaches. It does not look in detail at operational issues such as road and rail capacity and congestion, but starts by assuming free flow conditions. In recent years the free flow travel times by road and rail systems from the major cities have been relatively stable. Major infrastructure investment has been targeted at maintaining existing travel times between key locations rather than opening up new routes. In March 2002 the Scottish Executive (SE 2002a) confirmed that its priority for the next decade would be to continue with this strategy.

4.3 If infrastructure investment and travel demand management broadly maintain the geography of the networks as they are at present, then the implications for strategic planning are likely to be more national and international than local. The balance of advantage for various activities across Scotland would remain largely unaltered but the competitive position of the city regions of Scotland when compared with other locations internationally could change. Provided the Scottish Executive policy of maintaining accessibility is applied consistently across Scotland, the implications for the review of strategic planning should not be significant. Although there is no evidence presented to show whether the project priorities suggested (SE 2002a) will in reality maintain accessibility across Scotland at its current level, it is beyond the scope of this review to undertake such analysis. It is therefore assumed that levels of accessibility will be maintained uniformly across all parts of Scotland.

ACCESSIBILITY

4.4 In Appendix B, travel times by road and rail across Scotland from the four cities are plotted. Based on this analysis, approximate 30 minute travel time contours from the cities are shown in Figure 2 against the background of the Council boundaries.

Figure 2 - 30 Minute Contour by Council Boundary

4.5 At the 30 minute threshold there is very little overlap between the contours for the four cities.

4.6 Strategic planning of transport infrastructure and services is increasingly being co-ordinated by voluntary partnerships of Councils. In the west, the partnership for the Glasgow city region is called WESTRANS (West of Scotland Transport Partnership), in the east the partnership for the Edinburgh city region is SESTRAN (South East Scotland Transport Partnership), and in the north the partnership for the Aberdeen area is NESTRANS. The Scottish Executive has also summarised transport scheme proposals for the Tay area around Dundee. Table 2 shows the Councils which are included in each of the voluntary partnerships.

Table 2 - Strategic Transport Planning Areas for Transport

4.7 By comparing Table 2 with Figure 2 it is clear that there is a strong relationship between the voluntary partnerships and travel time from the four cities. However Falkirk and Stirling have closer transport links with Glasgow than Edinburgh so it is interesting that they are in SESTRAN rather than the WESTRANS. Fife appears to be evenly split between Dundee and Edinburgh and is included in both areas.

Demand

4.8 Travel to work is discussed in Section 5. Off-peak traffic flows are therefore considered in this section, to focus on non-work travel demand. The results of analysis using the Central Scotland Transport Model allows road traffic to Glasgow and Edinburgh from each Council area to be plotted as shown in Appendix B. CSTM is not sufficiently detailed for the Dundee area and does not cover the Aberdeen area, so it is not possible to consider traffic flows to these cities. The CSTM trip data which has been used is modelled road flows for 2001.

4.9 Passenger car units per head of population to each of the cities are shown in Table 3. It is of note that North Lanarkshire and Falkirk are the only two Councils that appear to have significant flows to both Glasgow and Edinburgh and that Stirling has off peak links with Glasgow, whilst adjacent Clackmannanshire has links with Edinburgh. It should be emphasised that these flows are taken from estimated trip matrices rather than survey data and as such should be treated with caution.

Table 3 - Daily PCUs per head of population

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