Annex 4 - Regeneration and Congestion - Detailed Strategies

Truro is the primary retail, commercial and administrative centre within the County. As the economic centre of Cornwall there is currently a high level of commuting into Truro, with an inward migration of 14,000 workers into the City each day along the corridors shown in Figure 1.6 below. The northern and eastern corridors meet on the edge of the City to effectively form one corridor. Hence, in reality there are three main corridors into the built area of the City. This level of commuter inflow, combined with travel to education, retail and health means that peak period congestion is already a problem on the radial routes to and from Truro. The high level of commuting will be addressed through a land use and sustainable transport strategy.

Open large scaleable image in Popup

Truro does not have the residential capacity to match its economic performance, with only 21,000 residents of which only 6,000 work in the City. Truro has been identified in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy as a primary area for housing within the South West and to a lesser extent employment growth, so there is a need to integrate new housing, employment and transport infrastructure in a planned way. The future development of Truro will be dependent on urban extensions; these need to effectively integrate housing, employment and transport infrastructure in ways which will remedy congestion, reduce the demand for commuting to the City and provide for enhanced public transport links with neighbouring towns. This process is being managed through the Local Development Framework in partnership with Carrick District Council. Key regeneration developments planned in Truro include the Peninsula Medical School and Knowledge Spa Phase II and the expansion of Truro College as part of the CUC initiative. There are also a number of possibilities within the area relating to new sporting facilities.

Truro, with higher land values than most of Cornwall, is able to secure more significant developer contributions for transport infrastructure development and these will be used to supplement the integrated transport block funding.

Open large scaleable image in Popup

Encouraging sustainable transport modes for those people travelling into Truro for education, health and leisure movements is equally as important as addressing the travel to work trips. A package of measures is proposed that includes improvements for all travel modes, but many of the individual elements are complementary to each other and so the impact of the package will be more than the sum of its parts.

A range of studies including the Highertown/Threemilestone Masterplan and Truro Transport Strategy have informed the five year strategy for Truro. We have undertaken a priority assessment of the proposals included within these studies, which has determined the schemes to be taken forward. The strategy for Truro (as defined under the 'toolkit') is illustrated in Figure 1.7.  The five year Regeneration and Congestion Strategy is represented in map form in Figure 1.11.

During the peak hours, the A39 and A390 corridors into the City suffer from severe congestion which, if not addressed, will have a detrimental effect on the economy of Truro. Improvements will be implemented on these corridors to reduce the level of congestion and allow the implementation of public transport improvements and the development of park-and-ride to encourage modal switch. Without reducing the level of congestion, proposals to improve public transport provision are unlikely to succeed as the buses become delayed by the same congestion as the private car.

The A390 is the main route into Truro from the north west, and carries the highest number of travel to work trips in the County, the majority of which are from the CPR area. The travel to work pattern in 2001 is illustrated in Figure 1.8. A number of the major employers are located on the western corridor. These include Royal Cornwall Hospital (RCH) and wide ranging retail and educational activities. A significant level of future development is planned within the area that will be serviced by the A390.

As part of the shorter term development plans, a new road link (Oak Lane link) is proposed.  This will relieve traffic demand on the A390 between Maiden Green and the Treliske roundabouts, and provide an alternative access into the Royal Cornwall Hospital site and the 'Knowledge Spa'; and proposed associated Science/Medi-Park. This will allow the existing section of road to become more of a ‘transport avenue’, providing a better route for those travelling by bus, cycle or walking, as well as providing an improved environment for the adjacent communities.

The majority of the proposals on the A390 will improve bus infrastructure on the County's highest frequency bus corridor and pave the way for the provision of the first phase of park-and-ride to serve Truro. Phase 1 is programmed to be delivered through the LTP2 funding and EU Objective One related funding.  The highway improvements will be included as part of the A390 Route Management Strategy and include:

• Improvement to the A390 Threemilestone roundabout to incorporate access to the park-and-ride site.

• A390 Newbridge Lane Roundabout – improvement of the junction as part of bus priority for the western corridor.

• The provision of bus priority measures along the western corridor including bus lanes and bus gates to improve journey times into the City.

Tregolls Road is the main access route into the City from the north east and east. Improvements to this route are crucial to enabling improved public transport services, as well as a precursor to park-and-ride Phase 2, which will see a site established on the eastern side of Truro. Improvements on the corridor will also reduce the number of vehicles using inappropriate routes, as the journey time on the main route will be improved. The schemes will form part of the A39 Route Management Strategy, and are focused on improving the capacity and performance of key junctions, which include:

• Improvement of Trafalgar roundabout to maximise the efficiency of the existing signalised arrangement and to improve operation for all traffic, including public transport.

• Fairmantle Street Junction – improvements to address congestion during the peak hours.

One of the eight integrated transport plans within the Connecting Cornwall strategy is improving links to ports. Truro's port has poor access via Newham Road, which is hindering further development. Improvements will be made to the road to improve access. The benefits of this improvement will be twofold, as the route also provides access to one of the main industrial estates in Truro.

Improvements to Rail

The strategy for rail focuses on increasing the frequency of trains and on providing better accessibility to the station for commuters and visitors travelling to Truro. The completion of the track dualling last year between Truro and St Austell has increased the capacity and reliability of the mainline, and created the potential for increased frequency of mainline services.

Further improvements for service frequency to Truro will be delivered through the planned construction of a passing bay on the Truro to Falmouth branch line. This will allow the service to run at a frequency of two trains per hour. The development of the Falmouth Docks area and National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC) and the expansion of the CUC at Penryn are forecast to create extra patronage potential along the Truro–Falmouth line. On the back of this improvement there will be an extension of the Falmouth rail service to two trains an hour, thereby encouraging use of rail for commuter, tourist and education related trips between the towns.

Improvements are also planned at the rail station in Truro, through the Riviera Project. The proposal will create an improved rail/bus Interchange with enhanced pedestrian access and comfort.  The creation of the interchange will see upgrading of the station facilities, forecourt, bus drop off area, car park, signing, crossing facilities and station furniture. Accessibility to the station will be much improved, particularly for public transport, and the station forecourt will be far more pedestrian friendly. These improvements will be complementary to First Great Western's aspirations to upgrade Truro station during the LTP2. Enhancements will continue beyond the station with the implementation of pedestrian signing between the station and the city centre and the provision of an i plus kiosk .

Open large scaleable image in Popup

The aspirations of the train operators are to provide an hourly service for Penzance to London services and two trains per hour between Falmouth and Truro. Rail services to and from Camborne and Redruth should also see an improvement in the off-peak service with an hourly ‘clock face’ service in each direction.

Improvements to Bus

Bus lanes have been provided on some sections of the A390 western corridor into Truro from Threemilestone, with an inbound bus lane between the Maiden Green and Treliske roundabouts.  Whilst this infrastructure has given significant journey time savings to buses on those particular sections of the route, they experience congestion with all other traffic for the remaining section to Dalvenie roundabout.

Hence, a scheme will be implemented to significantly extend the bus priority on the A390 western corridor. The bus priority will give an advantage to buses by minimising the delays that they currently experience due to congestion on this route. The advantage provided to buses will benefit a large number of passengers as Cornwall's busiest bus route, the Service 14/18, runs along this corridor serving the hospital, Truro College and key employers located in Highertown.

Access in and out of the RCH is an ongoing problem for both patients and staff. Delays in excess of 40 minutes have been experienced by staff attempting to access the A390 in the evening peak period. The hospital treats over 400,000 patients a year and employs 4,000 staff. We are working with the RCH to improve public transport access to the site. Bus priority into the hospital will be included as part of the western corridor scheme and improved bus facilities for passengers will be implemented at the hospital. The bus route from Truro, into and out of the hospital, will become a Punctuality Improvement Partnership (PIP). The PIP will be assisted by the priority measures that will be put in place on the corridor.

Additional bus priority improvements will be implemented around Truro to enhance the profile of public transport within the City. These improvements will include:

• Castle Street/Edward Street bus priority scheme that will enable buses to avoid Truro's one-way system and proceed directly into the City centre.

• Journey time improvements at Trafalgar roundabout as part of a junction improvement scheme.

Achieving a modal switch from car to bus is important to reduce the impact of congestion within the city during the morning and afternoon peak periods. Truro attracts by far the highest number of travel to work trips in the County, and the majority of these are by car. Bus infrastructure and service improvements will encourage more use of sustainable transport modes by existing residents and commuters. Some of the improvements that will be made are:

• Victoria Square Bus/Pedestrian Improvements – rationalisation of the existing on-street parking, together with bus interchange facility and widened footways. This will allow a second main bus interchange in the town centre, improving public transport links. Widening the footways will create a better area for pedestrians where the existing footways are narrow and queues for buses and the shops mean that pedestrians often have to walk in the road.

• Quality Bus Corridors for CPR-Truro services, Truro City services and park-and-ride.

• Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Truro.

• Existing bus services to use the new Oak Lane link road to provide a good level of accessibility to the Hospital and Science Park site, while minimising the delay to passengers travelling through the area.

• Extension of some of the bus routes to/from the north and east of Truro to serve the RCH and Science and Medi-Park site.

• Bus priority measures provided on St Nicholas Street and Princes Street, backed up with greater control of on-street parking to minimise delay to buses due to inconsiderate parking and parking manoeuvres.

• Provision of high quality bus stops and shelters, including raised bus boarders, at all of the main stop locations in Truro.

• Real-time information on bus arrivals provided at stops on the Quality Bus corridor.

Park-and- Ride

The first phase of the Truro park-and-ride package will deliver a new park-and-ride site on the western corridor and associated bus priority measures and junction improvements.  The bus based park-and-ride site will be implemented at Threemilestone, and is being developed in conjunction with major employers and service providers on the western corridor. The route will link Truro College, the RCH, Treliske industrial estate, New County Hall and the City centre with a regular 15 minute service. The route will also link directly into the rail station interchange with all buses stopping on the way into and out of Truro, providing a frequent link between the station, the city centre and the western corridor. The improvement in linkages between the station and key attractions in Truro, with an easily recognisable and useable public transport provision, is seen as a way of promoting rail travel for trips originating or destined for Truro city centre or the western corridor.

The economic assessment undertaken for the scheme has shown that 1,000 spaces would ultimately be required which, given the ‘captive demand’, would cover its operating costs over time. The park-and-ride site will bring a benefit to the western corridor by achieving up to a 15% reduction in car trips along the corridor during peak periods. The key employers on the corridor all have travel plan initiatives and have agreed to direct their staff to use the site as part of these initiatives, thereby establishing a guaranteed base level of patronage.

The delivery of the second phase of park-and-ride for the eastern corridor and third phase for the southern corridor are programmed towards the end of the LTP2 period. The park-and-ride on the eastern corridor will be sited at the confluence of the A390 and A39. The facility will be bus based and will form the second axis of the ‘dumb-bell’ provision of park-and-ride for Truro with the site on the western corridor. This is a unique arrangement that will allow park-and-ride buses to run between the two sites, increasing both the frequency and efficiency of the service. The ‘dumb-bell’ system will ensure that commuters can use the park-and-ride facilities to access work from either side of the City. The park-and-ride sites will serve not only the city centre, but key employment sites as well, and commuters will not have to use a particular park-and-ride site to catch a service to a particular location.

It is anticipated that the third phase of the Truro park-and-ride package will be a rail based park-and-ride site located in the vicinity of the confluence of the A39 and A394, to serve the southern corridor in to Truro. The existing congestion problems on the A39 are described in the Falmouth Strategy. This southern site would intercept commuters from Helston and the surrounding area of which there are significant numbers, as shown in the Figure 1.9. The rail park-and-ride site would be located on the Truro–Falmouth branch line, thereby supporting the proposed enhanced services on the line. Whilst the facility would be implemented primarily for Truro, the site will also be able to provide a park-and-ride service for Falmouth, although this is likely to be for tourists rather than commuters. Clearly, it should be noted that we cannot directly deliver this facility and it would need to be developed in partnership with the rail industry. This raises major uncertainty over the project, which can only be addressed as the proposal develops over time.  

Open large scaleable image in Popup

A parking management plan has been developed that will reduce the number of long stay parking places in the City by reallocating them as short stay. The park-and-ride sites will also be linked to variable message signs to inform commuters and visitors about the sites and current congestion in the City.

There are key measures that we have and will use in Truro in order to meet the rising traffic demand, whilst ensuring that the wider economic aspirations of the City are met, these include:

• Managing parking: both on and off-street, especially in towns.
• The use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).
• Management of road space.

A major tool in managing traffic demand in Truro is the location, availability and control of car parking.

It is intended that as an integral part of the implementation of the overall strategy for Truro, a parking restraint area will be defined within the City.  This will be based on the principle of giving priority to the needs of shoppers and visitors over the needs of commuters.  Within the restraint area:

• Prices in Carrick District Council controlled car parks will be adjusted to discourage use for long-term parking.  The price of long-term parking will be gradually increased in real terms and the number of long-stay spaces reduced by converting them to short stay.
• Development for uses other than residential use will provide on site parking for operational and disabled needs only.
• For existing businesses that have no provision for operational use but can prove an essential need, a minimal number of spaces will be provided in District Council car parks, at a fee, for exclusive use.
• In and adjacent to this area, controls will be introduced for on-street parking.  The following measures will be introduced where appropriate:
  • preferential residents' parking schemes;
  • pricing of on-street spaces; and
  • prohibitions to provide space for pedestrians, public transport, loading, cycle and disabled facilities.

We will work with the District Council and other partners to define the extent of the restraint area.  There will also be a need to confirm a perimeter outside this area where on-street parking controls can be applied.  The restraint area will be incorporated into the Local Development Framework which is currently being prepared by the District Council.  This will also set out the approach to new developments where developers will be discouraged from selecting sites outside restraint areas as a way of achieving greater on-site parking provision.  Instead, they will be led towards sites in the restraint area which are more accessible by public transport.

The current use of ITS to manage traffic flows and provide motorists with real time information on the availability of car parking will be extended during the LTP2 period.  Congestion detectors will also introduced to allow real time information to be provided to inform decisions on both mode and route choice during congested periods.  This system will be introduced as part of the park-and-ride system planned for Truro.

The LTP2 policy with regards to managing road space is set out under Section 6.5.2.3 in the main document.

Cycling

Truro is less self-contained than the other Cornish urban centres in terms of travel to work journeys with only 31% of residents living and working within the City. However, Truro is unusual in terms of the number of people who travel to work there on a daily basis. The City, which has a population of 21,000, sees a daily influx of 14,000 commuters. The intention is to affect a modal shift from car-borne arrivals to other forms of travel as they reach the key peripheral routes of the City. Park-and-ride will play a key role in achieving this aim. However, when people arrive at the park-and-ride sites, there is the potential to encourage some of the onward journeys onto bicycle for the remaining 2 miles of their journey. However, this is only achievable if direct and safe networks are provided with cycle parking facilities sited in suitable locations within the city centre and at major employment sites such as the RCH.

A key improvement to the cycle network in Truro will be the expansion of the western corridor network. This will link Threemilestone, the RCH, Truro College and the leisure facilities, the park-and-ride site and the new Richard Lander School. This will provide a comprehensive cycle network in Highertown to encourage modal switch, particularly for school pupils and college students. The cycle network will be delivered prior to the opening of Richard Lander School, in order to encourage pupil cycling from the start, rather than trying to encourage a change in travel choice once travel habits have been set.

For other parts of the City, a network of advisory cycle routes will be implemented, whereby suitable quiet roads are signed for cycle use, in a similar way to how Chapel Hill is signed as part of the Cornish Way. Once implemented, the network and other cycle improvements will be advertised, including production of a cycle network leaflet, to inform both potential cycle users and car drivers of the network.

The existing Shortlanesend cycle path has been well received but lacks a designated route into the city centre from Kenwyn Hill. A suitable route will be signed through the Kenwyn area, with short lengths of cycleway to connect up residential roads. This route could tie into The Cornish Way at Moresk Road and take advantage of the proposed St Clements Street crossing to reach the city centre.

Good cycle parking facilities will be provided in the city centre at appropriate locations to suit the main cycle routes entering the centre. Cycle parking will also be provided at the other key generators within the City, including the RCH, County Hall, Truro College, the station and at the Leats.

Truro is well linked to the strategic cycle network by the three arms of The Cornish Way that radiate from the city centre. The two southern arms of The Cornish Way will be linked by upgrading the existing Newham Way footpath for cycle use. This will mean that leisure cyclists will not have to enter the built up area of Truro to continue along The Cornish Way.

Through the urban area, the route of The Cornish Way follows relatively quiet roads, rather than dedicated cycleways or shared pedestrian/cycle facilities (although it passes through part of the pedestrianised Pydar Street). However, The Cornish Way crosses St Clement Street and a designated crossing will be provided here. A crossing here would also serve the local residents of the Moresk Road, Mitchell Hill and Tregurra Lane areas and link in well with this existing 20 mph zone.

Walking

If walking to work, the shops or school is to be encouraged, good pedestrian facilities are required to provide a safe and attractive environment. In many cases, footways are adequate but minor improvements can make a significant difference, including:

• dropped kerbs provided at road crossing points (especially important for the mobility impaired and older people);

• reducing the width of road that has to be crossed through careful location of crossing points, with kerb build-outs or central refuges if necessary; and

• encouraging drivers to slow down and making them more aware of crossing points through different surfacing materials or colours (such as ‘rumble strips’).

Improvements will be made at Lemon Quay to reduce the amount of traffic crossing the pedestrianised area. This will be achieved by using a rising bollard as a bus priority measure so that buses will still be able to use the route, but the bollard will dissuade the use by cars. Quay Street will be pedestrianised.

At certain points on the road network, where pedestrian demand is high or crossings are currently hazardous, a higher standard of crossing is appropriate, such as a puffin crossing or toucan (where there is a need for cyclists to cross). The following schemes have been identified:

• puffin crossing outside the railway station to improve access to/from the bus stop on the opposite side and for residents in the area;

• puffin crossing on Tregolls Road near Uplands Crescent; and

• pedestrian phases incorporated in the existing Trevithick Road/Tregolls Road signal junction.

The last site has already been assessed and will be implemented, but the first two schemes need to be fully assessed to confirm that they are justified.

School Travel Plans

The following schools in Truro will be invited to take part in the new 'intensive' School Travel Plan Programme: Penair, Richard Lander, Archbishop Benson, Bosvigo, Devoran and Treyew. The programme will follow the model successfully pioneered in first LTP at Falmouth and Newquay, that of working closely together across a range of initiatives and where appropriate introducing an element of competition within the cluster of schools. These schools will form part of the bigger group of 50 schools across the County, identified as having the greatest potential for modal shift and/or being within one of the urban centres.

Workplace Travel Plans

The following major employers will be invited to work together on Travel Plans to achieve an overall 5% reduction in car trips through the life of the LTP2. Within that will be a commitment to double the level of cycling for work to these six employers (based on a 2005 baseline level) and taking advantage of the proposed improvements to the cycle network on the Truro Highertown corridor:

• Royal Cornwall Hospital

• Cornwall County Counci

• Truro College

• Carrick District Council

• J Sainsbury superstore

• Tesco superstore

These employers have a potential 6,763 employees that could benefit from travel planning.  A 5% reduction equates to over 250 cars off the network per day.

The LTP2 programme for Truro is set out in Table 1.2.