M Ramachandran: Managing city transport

London is a good example of how integrated and proactive decision making can ensure an organised transportation system in a large city

The need for an effective decision making forum - such as a unified metropolitan transport authority - for our mega cities to proactively address the ever-increasing confusion surrounding urban transport in India is evident. The example of how Transport for London (TfL), chaired by the mayor of Greater London, addresses issues upfront is instructive. A couple of weeks spent in this mega city gives one a real flavour of how integrated and futuristic decision making and initiation of sound measures can ensure organised transport in a large city.

It is not that they do not have problems that need sorting out, or that there are no strikes or disruptions. It is a question of how prompt the city governance system is in handling these critical aspects, keeping in view the larger interests of smooth mobility for residents, ensuring that the city and its economy continue to function smoothly.

First, let me refer to some of the city's proactive initiatives. Taking serious note of air pollution in the city, the mayor has asked TfL to develop a system, including display of road signs on the most polluted roads, to tell Londoners when the air is dangerously bad. He has announced a consultation in the form of one of the largest package of measures against diesel fumes. Among the follow-up measures are the addition of a toxicity charge to the current congestion charge levied in the central congestion zone by the end of 2017, and bringing forward the concept of an ultra low emission zone in central London from September 2020 to 2019. This zone is to be extended to the north and south circular roads in 2020.

London's mayor has also called for a new clean air Act. There is a demand now in the city that polluters should pay for funding alternatives to diesel vehicles, and this is where promoting walking and cycling and investing in electric charging infrastructure becomes important.

As a key step in making cycling across the city safer and easier, the first of the Quietways, a nine-km stretch along traffic-free paths and quieter backstreets marked with purple branded signage, opened recently. It connects with other cycling routes in the area as well, and has a stretch which is completely free of traffic. This Quietway work was taken up and completed by TfL, local boroughs and walking charities. Six more Quietways are to be completed later this year. This step is another example of proactive facilitation for cyclists and walkers, taken up by TfL under the mayor's leadership.

London has a deputy mayor for transport, highlighting how important this issue is for a city, something we have not yet been able to prioritise for our urban local bodies. In another decision, the city system has decided that all vehicular movement will be banned on the 1.9-km-long Oxford Street, the key shopping area, which will be totally pedestrianised by 2020. Cars are already banned on most of this street from 7 am to 7 pm on all days except Sundays.

TfL regularly releases data on various aspects of mobility. A recently published paper says that strikes led to a loss of 26.4 million customer-hours on the tube system. Travellers have to spend increasing amounts of time waiting at platforms, in tunnels due to technical failures or stranded outside stations when strikes are on. Bus passengers lost 1.2 million hours in a year waiting at bus stops.

Overcrowding is set to worsen in the underground system as population growth is poised to overwhelm the system in the next 15 years. But the London Underground has plans to invest in modern signalling, new trains and the rebuilding of some important stations. Only recently, the tube started all-night Friday and Saturday services after years of obstruction and delay. The New York subway runs throughout the night, whereas the Paris metro operates late at weekends.

Strikes also cause disruption in London. This time there was a dispute in southern rail over over the fact that the management wants to move towards driver-only trains, thereby changing the role of conductors. Hundreds of thousands of mainline rail passengers found major disruptions when, for the fourth time during the season, train conductors observed a 24-hour strike. The rail system is not within the domain of TfL and the mayor has asked for the transfer of this utility to the city. He says that once control is given, the city will set tougher standards of performance and help ensure these standards are met by providing passengers with more frequent services and new and longer trains. But the country's transport secretary is not convinced; he believes the mayor has not really set out what is it that he will do differently.

Meanwhile, a third runway for Heathrow airport continues to remain a dream. Those who are for runway expansion claimed that a majority of MPs - 65 per cent - want the expansion and that this project will deliver benefits of up to £211 billion through economic growth and add some 180,000 new jobs. But the rival contender, Gatwick airport, claims that runway expansion there will balance the economy and the environment. The government was expected to take a decision, but Brexit and the change in the leadership of the country led to postponement of a decision one year after the Airport Commission had supported Heathrow's expansion. So, runway expansion can be a time-consuming decision in developed countries as well.

How the subject of city transport is taken close to the hearts of people was seen in the way TfL and the London Transport Museum organised an exhibition on the evolution of means of transport designs in the city from Victorian times to the present day. It also provided a glimpse of what London would be like in 2040. It is something that all our big cities can think of organising regularly to involve people in the much-needed promotion of public transport.

The writer is a former Secretary for Urban Development and the author of Reforming Urban Transport in India: Issues and Best Practices