Few eyebrows would have been raised in response to this week’s CBI announcement that transport problems are damaging the nation’s reputation as a place to do business.

But the detail is pretty scary. The employer body found that traffic jams are costing business some £20bn a year or for each firm, a sum equal to 5% of its turnover.

The survey may bring down to earth the enthusiasts at last week’s Thames Gateway Forum. The momentum behind plans to build new houses, reinforce flood defences, revitalise schools and create jobs in the area is impressive.

However, all plans hinge on the Gateway’s ability to attract people and businesses. In turn, this depends on whether both can get to and from the region and move around it at a reasonable pace.

Last week’s journey from the forum itself at the Excel Centre in the Docklands to the event’s dinner at Old Billingsgate in the City demonstrated exactly how dire the existing transport system is. The journey, only a couple of miles, took some delegates close to an hour as they sat in taxis snarled up in traffic. At least they were comfortable. The alternative mode of travel meant braving up to 15-minute stints in sub-zero temperatures whilst waiting for a DLR train.

The Thames Gateway will never work as hoped without a decent transport system. This means going ahead with Crossrail and most likely a few innovative projects, from local monorail systems to UK Ultraspeed.

Ideally the infrastructure should be in place before the bright new communities on the drawing board start taking shape. To make it happen a single governing body would be well placed to coordinate the multiple building programmes, agencies and authorities in each of the Gateway’s different pockets, and ensure a coherent transport network is created to link them all.

Source

QS News