It’s not often that a major road upgrade programme is cancelled. And it’s also rare to examine what should be done in its place. So we were delighted to be asked by the Transport Action Network to look for a better alternative following the decisions not to proceed with either the A303 tunnel and widening past Stonehenge nor with widening of the A358 (a link road from the A303 to the M5 motorway) further west. Together these road schemes would have cost over £2.5bn to build.
The A303 had been seen by National Highways as a strategically important route, connecting the M3 and M5 motorways, and so forming the key route linking London/South East with South West England. This is by far the South West’s busiest transport corridor. Yes, there is the M4-M5 motorway alternative to the north, but this is a lengthier route and is frequently congested (especially in the Bristol area). And the M4 is experiencing some unfortunate bridge structure failures too.
So what does a good alternative look like? In this new Greengauge 21 study, we set out an answer. It centres on sustainable transport.
The A303 is inter-regional and carries long distance travellers to and from the West Country, as well as local journeys. So the answer centres on better public transport, especially rail which could and should achieve a much higher share of medium/longer distance travel. Rather than a single scheme, we were seeking a full set of policies that would support sustainable development and the South West’s regional economy.
The relevant Sub National Transport Bodies, Peninsula Transport and Western Gateway along with Network Rail, we were delighted to find have done an excellent job in identifying what such a policy-set would look like. And into this framework, we were in turn pleased to identify a set of investments that could transform public transport use in the A303 ‘corridor’.
This geography – across Wiltshire and Somerset and East Devon – is rural with many, generally small and medium size towns (as well as major centres at Exeter, Taunton and Yeovil). The closest rail parallel serves many of the towns between Salisbury and Exeter. But it is struggling daily to provide a sufficiently reliable service over what is primarily, a single track line. The ‘Berks and Hants’ line running parallel a little further north, has minimal coverage of intermediate places, and with rural bus services few and far between, there is plenty of scope for improvement.
This can build on one of the area’s strengths which is being led by train operating company GWR: the integration of bus and rail through properly planned feeder bus services at key stations. We identify two station re-openings (Devizes and Wellington) for priority attention, noting the great set of connecting bus services that GWR has provided at the re-opened Okehampton station.
An accelerated programme of investment in the Salisbury-Exeter railway line costing rather less than the new abandoned highway projects would bring major benefits. It would allow for an increase in service frequency, with provision for 2 inter-regional trains/hour plus an hourly Devon Metro service Axminster-Exeter, a commuter service so essential to Devon’s economic growth and education/skill development aspirations.
The (Basingstoke-) Salisbury-Exeter line would also benefit from a switch from diesel traction to electric, which is currently working its way through the rail sector planning processes. The diesel fleet is nearing life expiry (40 years). The replacements would be much newer and better equipped but surplus-to-requirements electric multiple units. These would be converted to dual-mode battery-electric operation, and would be deployed on the Exeter line which would need to be equipped with a low cost discontinuous dc electrification programme.
The report picks up on key advice from the Climate Change Committee, which calls for action on climate adaptation as well as resilience measures. The main rail link between the South West and the South East is subject to heavy rainfall impacts in the lower Exe valley and across the Somerset levels, resulting in frequent switching of services to use of the under pressure single track route between Castle Cary, Yeovil and Exeter. This is a classic adaptation response, but to be dependable (and avoid compensating train service cancellations) more line capacity is needed. This is an added reason why our proposed alternative to the £2.5bn+ A303/A358 widening needs to start re-instating double tracks of the Salisbury railway from the Exeter end of the line.
The proposed strategy offers a great framework for the sustainable expansion of existing towns with additional affordable housing and the prospect of ready access to employment and education and training without reliance on private car use. The development of existing towns would in turn be served by better provision of active travel. And we propose a new, long distance, off-road cycle route too.
The report also outlines how freight could and should be encouraged to switch to rail in South West England, which – aside from the strong flow of aggregates from the Mendip quarries to London and elsewhere – is largely absent from the region. This would entail of encouraging a start-up of daily intermodal railfreight services.
With relatively modest capital cost implications (significantly less than the saving from the cancellation of the A303/A358 schemes), the connectivity of a large and important region could be hugely improved in a way that contributes significantly to meeting the nation’s climate change carbon emission reduction commitment.
The report set out who needs to do what to bring this programme into being. Maybe other highway schemes that appear to be going nowhere such as the Lower Thames Crossing should be the subject of equivalent ‘A303’ reviews. You can read the full report here: Connecting South West England Report
Enjoy your read!
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