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New deal planned for Tyneside and Wearside
Page 10
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• During the next 15 years Tyneside and Wearside, which together cover a 300 square mile area, plan to spend £136m—at 1969 /70 price levels—on an ultra modern prdgramme to improve transport facilities within their boundaries. Invested effectively this money would enable goods and people to travel with few serious problems, even during peak hours, as far as traffic congestion is concerned.
This multi-million plan for the future has been prepared in under two years by the American transport firm of consultants —who have had considerable success in their homeland—Alan M. Voorhees and Associates. Recently they published the first half of the Tyne Wear Transportation and Land-Use-Study which was originally sponsored by the Ministry of Transport and has now been taken over by the Department of the Environment as well as by seven local authorities in the Tyne-Wear region. These are Northumberland and Durham County Councils, and Newcastle, Gateshead, Tynemouth, Sunderland and South Shields Corporations. Total cost of the study to date is expected to reach more than £330,000. The scheme includes a drastic rebuilding of the public transport systems. The plan for transport has already been approved and states that expenditure on roads within the region in the period 1971 /1984. should be £88m and on public transport £48m. The plan gives tremendous hope for the area by acknowledging that if the money is used effectively and in time, before any further erosion caused by inflation, then by the early 1980s road haulage goods and container traffic as well as private motorists will be able to travel about their business unhampered by congestion.
Road projects in the Newcastle area alone would total over £24m. These would include completion of the central area motorway system but would not include a possible super by-pass motorway that could be needed ultimately. The central motorways would facilitate access to the centre as well as protect it from through traffic.
Two trunk road projects in Northumberland woald be carried out at a cost of £13m. These schemes would create by-pass routes of Al around Gosforth and of A69 through to Horsley. Substantial time and cost savings would result from reduced radial and central road congestion following the construction of a new bridge across the Tyne linking Northumberland and Durham. This bridge would lead to greatly increased accessibility between areas of high employment along the river banks. The new Shields Road Motorway would link the new Tyne crossing with the Newcastle central motorway system.
The plan envisages a sound rebuilding of the public transport system which the report says is "an essential part of the overall transport plan". Approximately £21m will be needed to build a new underground rapid transit tunnel carrying local services through central Newcastle and Gateshead. The underground route would link the two centres by means of a new bridge over the Tyne permitting quick, convenient movement. Revitalized local commuter services in the area would be instituted on the four British Railways main lines, and bus services would be co-ordinated with these.
Expenditure of £3 would provide exclusive bus lanes in two corridors not served by rail and permit faster, more reliable bus services than could ever be operated in a heavily mixed traffic system.
The report also says that every encouragement would be made through the plan to encourage car owners to take advantage of the improved public transport services. To this end £2m has been included for land purchase and construction of car parks at selected interchange locations where commuters could pick up inter-city buses or inter-city trains.