‘Seamless door-to-door journeys by 2050’? Adur and Worthing councils endorse £11.8 billion travel plan
An ambition to eliminate four million car journeys a day by 2050 could be realised through road tolls, reduced public transport fares, and virtual working.
Councillors have endorsed an £11.8 billion plan to improve travel in the South East.
Members of both Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council responded to the draft ‘strategic investment plan’ (SIP) from Transport for the South East.
TfSE was established in 2017 to determine which transport infrastructure is needed to boost the region’s economy and the draft plan sets out ambitions to improve travel by 2050.
It will also be used by the Secretary of State for transport to inform investment.
Nine packages of interventions worth £11.8 billion are proposed for ‘Solent and Sussex Coast’, spanning the New Forest in the west, to Hastings in the east, including the Isle of Wight.
‘Doing nothing is not an option’, according to the SIP which predicts that the region will miss carbon targets with the current transport system.
Major long-term interventions include a £2 billion, five kilometre-long tunnel along the A27- but this would not be built until 2045 at the earliest.
The plan recognises that, despite some A27 improvements, there are still issues around capacity, journey times, and safety which sees traffic diverting to alternative routes that aren’t suitable for such high volumes.
In addition, buses and cyclists can be held up by congestion in Worthing.
Increasing ‘active travel’ like cycling, and increasing journeys taken by public transport, is a key objective of the SIP.
An ambition to eliminate four million car journeys a day by 2050 could be realised through road tolls, reduced public transport fares, and virtual working.
Although the plan does include improving links between London and the coast, there are also plans to improve east to west links.
Local walking and cycling plans would also be taken into account.
Both ADC and WBC have broadly supported the plans.
But the councils say proposed improvements to the A27 are ‘too distant a prospect’ for what is currently a very pressing issue.
As a result, they say that the SIP should not rule out any short term interventions.
Speaking on Thursday (September 8) ADC’s cabinet member for communities and well-being Kevin Boram said: “For once we’ve had a holistic study looking at the whole of Sussex and also along the coast.
“To have the bigger picture – even though I know I will be 90-years-old when some of these things come to fruition if they come on time – I really value this.”
On Tuesday (September 6) WBC leader Beccy Cooper said: “The A27 is a wicked, wicked problem and ongoing source of frustration for many residents.
“A travel network is about more than just people getting in and out of their cars.
“We should not be focusing on people in cars at all – we should be focusing on the fact that we have a very necessary and essential de-carbonisation target to meet because we have a climate emergency and we also have a health emergency.
“We need to look at how we keep people healthy and well and how we keep our planet healthy and well and a sustainable transport network is part of that.”