Demand Responsive Transport and Park and Ride - an update

I have received a number of residents' enquiries recently about progress in getting park and ride in Dundee - particularly to the west and south of the city.   

Having moved forward the Park and Ride issue when I was chair of TACTRAN, the regional transport partnership, between 2007 and 2009, I asked TACTRAN for an update on the issue, and also on moves towards community transport (Demand Responsive Transport or DRT) that would be a boon for those who have difficulty using the main bus services or who have a poor bus service at present.  

The TACTRAN response is below :

"Park & Ride at south side of Tay Bridge

This project is being taken forward jointly with Tactran, Sestran, Transport Scotland, Dundee City Council and Fife Council.  As you’ll no doubt be aware a site identified as “Landfall Site” located on an area across the road from the existing Tay Road Bridge car park, was identified through the joint study as the preferred site and would include 350 car park spaces and be serviced by existing bus services passing the site.  However, the land was not allocated for Park & Ride within the draft St Andrews and East Fife Local Plan and Tactran and Sestran formally objected to this lack of allocation.  The St Andrews and East Fife Local Plan examination commenced in June 2011 during which the issue of Park & Ride at the Landfall site will be considered by the Reporter.  We are therefore waiting for the outcome of the examination at present before taking this project forward.  The best guess I have from Fife Planning Officers is that they expect the examination process to take around 9 months, but nothing official has been received regarding this timescale.

Dundee West Park & Ride

A Technical Report and Outline Business Case for Dundee West Park & Ride was recently completed and reported to Tactran Partnership meeting in June.  This was taken forward by a Steering Group consisting of Tactran, Dundee City Council and Transport Scotland and also keeping NHS Tayside informed of progress.  The study provided detailed designs for two possible sites, both with 400 space car parks: Site 3i - north west of Swallow Roundabout and Site 6b Riverside Avenue at Wright Avenue. Both sites would likely be serviced by a 12 minute frequency dedicated P&R bus service and could serve Ninewells Hospital in addition to the city centre.  However, the cost of the bus service serving Ninewells Hospital would be significantly more than serving the city centre only. 

The work concluded that both sites have positive business cases. Site 3i has a higher capital cost and annual bus subsidy cost, but has a benefit of removing traffic from Swallow Roundabout in the morning peak as well as removing traffic from the city centre.  Site 6b has a lower capital cost and bus subsidy cost, but removes traffic from city centre only (i.e. no effect at Swallow Roundabout).

The Partnership in June remitted officers to explore opportunities for funding and implementation for Dundee West Park and Ride.  We are currently in discussion with Transport Scotland and Dundee City Council regarding which of the two sites is each organisation’s preferred site for implementation and we are also exploring NHS Tayside’s interests.  Once we get agreement on the preferred site, we will report back to the Partnership Board and continue with the detailed design.

Both Dundee West and South of Tay Bridge Park & Ride sites are identified within Transport Scotland’s Strategic Transport Projects Review, Strategic Park & Ride Project (Project 8) and as such any funding discussions will involve Transport Scotland.  We are also investigating the possibility of European funding for both sites.

As noted above a report on progress with the various Tactran Park & Ride projects was considered at the Partnership meeting on 21 June 2011and I’ve included a link to the report should you want more detailed information than that I’ve provided above.

DRT

Dundee City Council is leading on implementation of the DRT scheme, in partnership with Tactran. Revised options are being considered for the delivery of DRT, with the aim of introducing a pilot scheme during 2011/12. It is anticipated that the scheme will commence in December 2011 at the earliest.  £30,000 is allocated within Tactran revenue budget and £125,000 within the joint Tactran/DCC Capital budget in 2011/12 to support the introduction of DRT in Dundee."

The City Council has missed its original target date for a DRT pilot and I have therefore asked the council's Head of Transportation for more details of exactly what scheme will be brought forward and if it will indeed be brought forward in the revised timescale envisaged above.