Transport and economic development - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 12

of this is concentrated in South-East England on London commuter routes (Figure
1.3). Key national investments have been the electrification of the West Coast Main
Line (from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow) in the 1960s
and 70s and the East Coast Main Line (London Kings Cross to Leeds, Newcastle and
Edinburgh) in the 1980s.
As important as the spread of electrification has been the improvements in track
and signalling on principal routes. These permit the running of trains at over 100
mph, and particularly enable utilisation of the high speed (125 mph) diesel train
introduced in the 1970s. Recent major enhancements to the national rail network
have been the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line (to permit use of tilting
'Pendolino' trains at up to 140 mph) and the completion of the first High Speed
Line from the Channel Tunnel to London St Pancras as part of the Eurostar network
operating at 186 mph.
As with the national road network so the national rail passenger network results
in accessibility disadvantages for the more peripheral parts of Britain. In fact the
route network alone disguises these differences since on many of the remoter lines
only a relatively slow and limited service is operated. Even in more urbanised regions,
because of the way investment and through services have been concentrated on lines
connecting major cities, the relative position of cities and large towns located off these
routes, such as Hull, Bradford and Blackpool, has deteriorated.
Except for the link to the Channel Tunnel the physical extent of the network has
remained virtually the same for the last 30 years but the intensity of services operated
over it (or more accurately on its main urban and inter-urban elements) has altered
quite dramatically. From a low point of around 185m loaded train miles a year in
1982 operations increased under British Rail to 225m in 1990/91. This resulted from
a more commercial policy in the use of resources and exploitation of the opportunities
presented by a new generation of diesel-multiple units. After rail privatisation and in
the context of another period of economic growth operations have increased again to
a current level of 288m in 2006/7.
Figures for the extent of bus and coach networks are not available, partly because
the networks themselves are subject to frequent change. Some indication of trends in
service levels can be gauged nevertheless from the vehicle mileage operated (Figure
1.4). From the post-war peak this fell by a fifth to 1977. The use of public subsidy
halted this trend until the deregulation of services outside London in the mid-1980s,
whereupon a major increase in supply ensued in the larger urban areas. This was partly
due to the greater use of minibuses and other smaller single-deck vehicles which
made it practicable to operate higher density services (in terms of both network and
frequency) more suited to a competitive environment.
The initial increases in bus mileage nevertheless give a misleading impression of
the extent of improvement in service levels. This is because, in pursuit of commercial
objectives, a greater proportion of total mileage was operated on the most heavily used
routes, often in direct competition. In the metropolitan areas particularly the lack of
co-ordination in services and ticketing, coupled with uncertainty over changes in bus
routes, meant that for many passengers no overall improvement was perceived. Since
the mid-1990s however the converse applies - because of company amalgamations
and less 'on the road' competition there has been greater opportunity for operators to
deliver a more effective service for a given mileage, so the decline in service level is
probably not as great as the absolute reduction in mileage would imply. Overall mileage
in the metropolitan areas has now returned to much the same level as operated prior