Projects 2018-2019
2018-19 saw WestTrans make progress in a range of areas, and work in a more strategic way to influence and deliver transport projects for the sub-region. Now formally integrated into the West London Alliance as its transport arm, we worked with colleagues in planning, growth, digital and skills, as well as our established partners in the borough transport teams.
Key projects:
E-bike Trial
We introduced an electric bike trial to two London boroughs and an assortment of other local organisations. Eight bikes were trialled at Harrow and Hounslow Councils, and two across West London at sites including a yoga studio, sixth form college and sports charity.
We managed the project fully in-house, and worked with partners including Wego, an electric vehicle courier, and London Bike Hub, a local bike shop and mechanic company, to deliver the trial.
The project enjoyed a lot of success: staff at both boroughs and businesses purchased e-bikes for their own use.
The trial continued into the 2019-20 financial year, given its success, as well as the need to focus e-bike efforts on the summer months.
Healthy Campus Champion
WestTrans has run this programme, in partnership with London Cycling Campaign, for several years. It targets the critical 16-25 age group and encourages them into active travel.
This year the programme saw a big success, thanks to the efforts of Jess and Max, our tireless cycle champions:
launching a Santander Cycles scheme at Brunel University. Following crowd-funding last year, Brunel won a Santander competition to implement docked cycles on its campus. Our Cycling Champions then worked with the teams at Brunel, Nextbike, Santander and Hillingdon Council to bring the scheme to life.
On 1st March 2019 the scheme came into operation, and on 15th March an official launch marked its opening, by which time it had already seen 2,000 bike hires. This makes it one of the most successful Nextbike schemes in the country. There are 50 bikes, docked at Brunel University, Uxbridge High Street and Hillingdon Hospital. Congratulations to Jess, Max, and the other teams for bringing this cycle scheme to West London.
The programme also organised London By Cycle events at Harrow College, West London College and West Thames College over the 2018-19 academic year. These were designed to encourage students to try cycling, learn how to ride a bike, get their bike fixed or simply find out more about active travel.
Freight
Work on freight this year mainly focused on Delivery and Servicing Plans (DSPs). With funding from the Mayor's Air Quality Fund, we worked with the Kings Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith to implement their DSP. This involves reducing delivery inefficiencies and other issues in order to reduce air pollution and noise around the site. We recorded all deliveries to the shopping centre at the rear service yard, as well as deliveries made by vehicles stopping on King Street. We then built a detailed picture of the centre's activity and measured how well the DSP performed in reducing the impacts of vans and lorries.
Strategic Bus Corridors
WestTrans worked with TfL on rapid bus transit solutions for West London, and developed a number of orbital route possibilities to speed up orbital journeys. The first phase of the project looked at identifying specific key strategic bus corridors. The second phase then explored Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a connected piece of work, in which routes would be served by buses which stop less frequently and have dedicated road space, allowing faster journeys.
Travel Plan Monitoring
Our award-winning travel plan monitoring programme continued. Over 600 sites are now in the database, and our Travel Plan Monitoring Officer produced a report to highlight their progress towards modal shift.
West London Orbital
The West London Orbital is a new railway for West London, which when completed will form part of the London Overground. It joins up disused and little-used railway lines into a coherent route between Hendon / West Hampstead and Hounslow. The outline business case was approved by Spring 2019 and the work is now progressing with TfL and Network Rail. WestTrans has allocated funding for potential complementary measures for the line in due course, as it will have considerable impact on people's ability to move orbitally in West London.
Networks and Forums
We worked with the following networks this year to achieve our goals:
- TfL Freight Forum
- Act Travelwise
- LoCITY
- WLA
- APRIL
- LEPT
- TRICS
- LC LLCC
- TP Forum
- OLEV
On 1st March the scheme came into operation, and on 15th March an official launch marked its opening, by which time it had already seen 2,000 bike hires. This makes it one of the most successful Nextbike schemes in the country. There are 50 bikes, docked at Brunel University, Uxbridge High Street and Hillingdon Hospital. Congratulations to Jess, Max, and the other teams for bringing this cycle scheme to West London. We also wish Jess well as she moves to a role at Nextbike.
The project is also organising London By Cycle events at Harrow College, West London College and West Thames College in the coming months. These are designed to encourage students to try cycling, learn how to ride a bike, get their bike fixed or simply find out more about active travel.
