Transport and economic development - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 17

In recent years attention has come to be focused more on congestion and other
sources of unreliability in transport operations since the predictability of travel times
has been found to influence people's perception of journey opportunities as well as the
nominal times and costs involved. The monitoring of conditions has begun, though
typically for only a few years.
Since 1999 the Department of Transport has been collecting traffic speed data on
major roads in the 18 largest urban areas in England. These show that average traffic
speeds have fallen by an average of 4% at peak times and 8% at off-peak times over the
last seven years. On motorways and trunk roads traffic conditions are being monitored
on sections of the network with the slowest journeys (11.6); over an initial two years
average journey times have increased by 2.9%.
The reliability of rail passenger services has been monitored for ten years. The
running of all scheduled services is recorded and measured against the timetable.
They are classed as being 'on time' if they arrive at their final destination within 10
minutes of the scheduled time in the case of long distance services and 5 minutes
for other services. Initially the 'on time' performance of all operators averaged just
under 90% but plummeted by more than 10 points following the Hatfield rail crash in
October 2000 (8.6). Overall performance has since improved and is now better than
pre-Hatfield levels (Figure 1.5). These figures deserve to be seen in the context of the
increasingly intensive operations described in the previous section - a situation which
rapidly compounds the effect of any disruption in service.
As far as the unit costs of transport are concerned these are strongly influenced by
the loadings which can be achieved. For example over the last 50 years road freight
transport has benefited not only from the time savings arising from investment in the
national road network but also from the increased loads it has been practicable (and
legal) to carry. Bus operators by contrast have had to face the conundrum of a long-
term decline in passenger loadings. Before deregulation their response was to reduce
mileage operated, although at a slower rate than the decline in passengers, resulting
in a drop in average loadings. Since deregulation bus mileage has been increased
considerably and an overall stabilisation of patronage achieved (due also to changes
in concessionary fares policies) but at the price of a further drop in average loading. In
1955 buses carried an average of 22 people per mile. By 1980 this was barely 15 and is
currently less than 10.

100

90

80

70

All operators

60

Regional

50

40

London & SE

30

20 Long distance

10

0

Figure 1.5 Punctuality and reliability of national rail services 1997/98-2006/07