Hampshire Sustainable Transport Towns Project

This £4.1m project, funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) runs until March 2015. Itaims to encourage residents and workers in the six towns of Aldershot, Andover, Basingstoke, Farnborough, Fleet and Winchester to make greater use of sustainable travel modes in their everyday journeys.

If more people choose to make short journeys by local bus, rail, walking, cycling or car-sharing more of the time instead of by car, where a reasonable alternative exists, then this will help to:

• reduce congestion at peak times on local roads as a result of fewer car trips per household.
• reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, helping address the contribution of local transport to climate change, and to improve air quality.
• improve health and general wellbeing as a result of more people building in physical activity into their daily travel routines.

The Hampshire Sustainable Transport Towns (HSTT) Project comprises a package of 31 complementary measures spread between the six towns. Below is a copy of the bid that was submitted to the DfT in April 2011.

Submitted Bid (pdf download)

The bid was accepted by the DfT in July 2011 as one of 39 projects that received LSTF Tranche 1 funding. In September 2011, the County Council agreed with the DfT a revised accelerated grant profile, that has seen £217,000 of capital grant brought forward to the 2011/12 financial year.

As part of the project, a number of transport improvements are being delivered or are planned in all six towns up to March 2015. These improvements will be supported by marketing and travel planning work to encourage residents and workers to consider making more use of sustainable forms of travel.

Initiatives already underway include:

• setting up and growing Travel Plan Networks to help employers to support more sustainable commuting habits, through measures such as providing travel information to staff (for example on car-sharing and fuel efficient driving techniques);

• development of station travel plans that look to improve access to rail stations by sustainable forms of travel in partnership with South West Trains;

• Development of a smartphone application providing information on how bus services are running in real time and new electronic travel information kiosks in three of the six towns;

• Delivery of Personal Travel Planning information and advice to households in three of the six towns, starting in north east Basingstoke in June;

• Providing support schools and colleges in Winchester to implement their travel plans.

• In partnership with cycling charity CTC, during the spring and summer of 2012, we are delivering a range of initiatives to encourage people who live in Fleet and Winchester to get cycling including low-cost cycle training, rides, cycle challenges and roadshow events. Further information can be found here.

• Improvements to the cycle network in Fleet

• Development of an HSTT website portal that offers journey planning information, project news, details of events and resources to download, such as cycle maps and leaflets.

Although Hampshire County Council is leading on the delivery of the project, it is working with a range of project partners and specialists, including District Councils, cycling charity the CTC, Sustrans, bus and rail operators and community groups.

Regular updates on progress made with HSTT project delivery are produced. The updates produced so far are available to download below:

Delivery Update # 1 - November 2011 (pdf download)

Delivery Update # 2 - February 2012 (pdf download)

The Hampshire Sustainable Transport Towns project will look to deliver a 5% reduction in vehicle delays, helping to support the creation of 4,400 new jobs in the six towns by 2015. Through travel planning work with businesses, the project will improve access to key employment areas and will also improve access to training and education opportunities through school and college travel planning. The marketing and travel planning work will look to reduce carbon emissions by around 6,700 tonnes a year by 2015.