Seminar: Rail Planning

The timetable is the essence of the service offered by a public transport operator. Unless a train or bus, a plane or ferry is available at times reasonably close to when a potential customer wishes to travel the offer will be unattractive, and those who have an alternative – typically the private car – will use it. Other features of the service, such as price, facilities and ambience, do of course influence decisions, but the timetable is the sine qua non. Yet, as this Paper will argue, it has in Britain been neglected, in terms of institutional arrangements, managerial attention and research. The probable price of such neglect is sub-optimal use of the rail and bus networks to a degree that may have profound implications for public policy, modal split and the environment. The author is managing a Project entitled Measuring demand for an integrated inter-urban public transport network under the Future Integrated Transport Programme of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EPSRC] and the Department for Transport [DfT]. The partners are the Institute for Transport Studies in the University of Leeds [ITS], the author’s consultancy – Passenger Transport Networks [PTN], Network Rail, the Association of Train Operating Companies [ATOC], Eden Business Analysis and SMA of Zürich, with the Strategic Rail Authority [SRA] as an observer. Funding is provided by EPSRC, DfT and ATOC, and the industry is enabling access to all necessary data. SMA has contributed its Viriato timetabling software, as used by the Swiss, German and other mainland Railways. The Paper will describe the Project, report its findings and discuss their implications. It was a cardinal tenet in its conception that the research would not be restricted by history, organisations, prevailing legal arrangements, conventional operating practice and existing service patterns. This is not to say that any of these are necessarily irrelevant or wrongly constituted, but rather that a clearer view of what is best for individual travellers and, perhaps of greater importance, what is best for the community collectively, will be obtained if the researchers can construct an ‘ideal’ network of public transport from first principles. This was felt to be particularly timely because, in addition to it not having been attempted previously in Britain, it was evident that decisions regarding the strategic direction of the railways were rapidly rising up the political agenda. If the conclusion is indeed that managing the system differently could yield significant benefits there will be cause to consider the institutional, financial, operational and transitional requirements.