The transport problems experienced in the region’s more sparsely populated rural areas are slightly different, and tend to be related to issues such as accessibility. One of the challenges for developing a good transport system in rural areas is that the density of housing and services tends to be low, and people need to travel longer distances to get to their destinations. Low population densities over large areas may also restrict the effectiveness of public transport services. One of the ways in which the RPG aims to reduce the need to travel by car in rural areas is to improve rural rail services, particularly in areas where there is scope for added tourism such as lines serving Furness, West Cumbria and Windermere.

Europe and beyond

The North West is at the centre of a number of national and international transport routes. The region’s main trading corridors to Europe are the Channel Tunnel and Dover/Haven ports and the Humber ports, which mean that the two principal transport corridors in the region run from north to south and east to west. The region’s airports and ports are a crucial part of the region’s transport network too, as they provide important national and international gateways.

Traditionally, the north-south trading routes are the most active in terms of industrial output. By contrast Europe’s northern hinterlands along the east-west axis have seen less industrial and economic growth. Enter the NETA project. The North European Trade Axis (NETA) is a pan-European project looking to improve trading and transport links across a large corridor from Ireland to the Baltic and to provide new East-West short-sea shipping links to the EU Accession States. The route is positioned to capitalise on the Eastward expansion of the European Union and provides opportunities for the North West in addition to existing North-South axes. The first stage of the project was completed in 2001 with a resolution to future cooperation and joint working between the member regions and provinces. The NETA team is in the process of examining the possibility of securing European funding to improve Trans-Pennine rail links to enable deep-sea containers to be carried by rail between the two regions and their ports.

The opening up of a viable East-West trading route offers huge industrial and economic opportunities for the North West, provided our ports, roads and railways are able to cope with the inevitable increase in traffic.

Where to from here?

So what kind of transport system do we want? A transport system that enables us to access our homes, work places, shops and leisure facilities with the greatest convenience and personal safety, at the fastest speed, the lowest financial cost and minimal environmental impacts. Oh, and before we forget - all travel options should be available and equally accessible to all of us, regardless of location, age, ability or income. These are just some of the challenges faced by politicians and transport planners in the North West.

Transport planning and landuse planning are interlinked. An effective regional transport system that integrates land use planning with transport planning can make an area more accessible, reduce the need to travel, attract new development and encourage investment. Add to this the common sense approach of managing transport demand through priority bus and cycle lanes, car park charging and ‘soft’ measures such as better information provision and we may have the transport system we all want and a solution to the region’s long term transport problems.

So what is the future for transport in the North West? The need to travel, access to different types of transport, and the ways in which we choose to travel are all linked together, and an improved transport system can only be achieved through combined planning efforts and personal travel choice. Building new roads to meet traffic growth is not the only option - the road network in the North West already adds up to a staggering 36,700 kilometres. The continuing increase in car travel is giving us more environmental and social problems than transport solutions. The aim of an integrated transport system is to get us there - and back - more efficiently. The bus, the bike and the railway are finally getting their share of the attention and what about walking - there’s no chance of a parking ticket if we walk to work and it’s healthy!