‘Transport Restart plan’ for Peterborough and Cambridgeshire

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CaPCA) plans to lead the restart of the transport system in the county following Covid-19 lockdown.

Presenting a report to members of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee at their online meeting (September 9), Rowland Potter, Head of Transport said: “Following the easing of some restrictions, the government has said it expects Combined Authorities to lead the restart of their local transport systems.

“The CaPCA Transport Restart Group brings together the two main city councils in Peterborough and Cambridge, police and public health, a representative bus operator, Network Rail, Highways England, and the Department for Transport, and has met weekly since June 1.

“The group has three main tasks: first, to ensure that public transport restarts to as near 100 per cent of the pre-Covid network as possible.

“Second, to ensure a package of active travel measures are implemented to mitigate potential increases in private car use.

“Thirdly, to monitor data in relation to the impact of Covid-19 on transport and consider what further measures might be needed to maintain transport recovery.”

The report explains that while the ‘Home to school transport’ programme is not directly within Transport Restart Group’s remit, they have liaised with council education authorities to ensure the availability of enough transport from the first week in September, as well as considering the potential for congestion around schools should more journeys than usual be made by private car.

During the extreme of lockdown, vehicle traffic on main roads in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough fell to just 30 per cent of pre-lockdown levels, with some minor roads seeing less than 5 per cent of pre-lockdown levels.

Only 42 per cent of buses and 50 per cent of trains ran, and passenger numbers were just 4 per cent of normal.

Mr Potter added: “At the time of preparing this report, vehicle traffic has bounced back to 105 per cent of pre-lockdown levels across the area, and in South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire is at 120 per cent of pre-lockdown levels.

“So far, there has not been a return of significant congestion, and there’s limited evidence of a return to a ‘rush hour’.

“Bus firms have made a determined effort to restore their networks with subsidised services running at 100 per cent of normal levels and commercial services are running at over 90 per cent.

“However, passenger numbers have not recovered, and are at about 30-35 per cent of normal with the implications of this for the economics of those commercial services being obvious.

“The Combined Authority has received £275,000 bus support funding through the Emergency Bus Services Support Grant, but while that grant has been extended indefinitely on a rolling 8-week basis, it could be cancelled at any time.

“It is worth noting that, unlike some other areas, collaboration to date between bus firms and the Transport Authority has been strong and there have not at this point been differences of view about acceptable service levels.

“Figures for train services are harder to estimate, but some services are running with passenger levels as low as 5 per cent of pre-lockdown levels.”

The Combined Authority received a £2.94m Active Travel grant, which has been passed onto Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council to deliver identified cycling improvement measures and social distancing signage during the pandemic period to encourage cycling and walking across the region.

The CaPCA also received £678,000 for Home-School funding, which will be forwarded onto the Peterborough City council and Cambridgeshire County Council Home to School Transport services Team to ensure there is sufficient transport capacity so children and young people can get to school and college safely, and on time.

Funding is being provided to support the costs of additional transport provision for the Autumn half-term.

The next meeting of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee will be on November 4, 2020.