8.28 The City Centre is the focus for intra-urban and inter-urban transport links in the West of Scotland. Strengthening and enhancing the integration between transport systems and land uses will be crucial to the City Centre’s long-term future. The City must aspire to having transport infrastructure of a standard comparable with its competitors. It must also have a quality of environment that is attractive to residents, visitors and investors. Continued review of, and investment in, transport infrastructure and environmental improvements will be needed, therefore, if the City Centre is to retain its competitiveness.

8.29 The Millennium Plan (1995) provides the transport strategy for the City Centre but also affects transport in the City as a whole. It contains three key elements:

• a better deal for pedestrians and cyclists;
• promoting public transport; and
• accommodating essential vehicle access.

8.30 The Millennium Plan aims to reduce the impact of traffic by removing unnecessary through movement within the City Centre, enabling measures to be implemented, such as major environmental improvements to the public realm in the main retail and pedestrian streets and squares, the creation of bus priority and the development of cycle routes. Other public transport proposals in the Millennium Plan include the implementation of Crossrail, (linking the north and south electric rail networks), the improvement of Buchanan Bus Station (complete), making existing rail stations more accessible, the expansion of park-and-ride and the introduction of the Strathclyde Tram.

8.31 The Millennium Plan has made considerable progress in the improvement of the environment in the Principal Retail Streets, the introduction of traffic management measures and the provision of bus priority. These programmes will continue with the introduction of further bus measures, including a traffic control system that will favour buses at junctions. Progress on the other aspects of the Millennium Plan, however, has been slow. Parliamentary Commissioners rejected the Strathclyde Tram light rail proposal and Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) is in the process of considering alternative proposals. Crossrail is now being assessed against a more expensive option to link the north and south networks via a deep-bored tunnel and the outcome of studies into this and the light rail proposals is awaited.

8.32 The public transport infrastructure serving the City Centre has responded well to changing demands. It is essential to maintain the success of the City Centre by developing infrastructure to a standard that allows Glasgow to be compared favourably with its competitors. In order to determine how this can be achieved, a comprehensive review of the City’s transport infrastructure is required, with particular emphasis given to the needs of the City Centre and the opportunities that exist for measures such as the provision of street-running light rapid transit and the creation of new stations at Glasgow Cross in association with Crossrail. The Underground also forms an important element of the City’s transport network, facilitating access to the major rail and bus stations within the City Centre. There may be potential to increase its use by enhancing off-peak frequencies, extending opening hours and, more radically, creating a new station/interchange to serve Buchanan Bus Station.

8.33 Through Westrans, the Council, together with local authorities in the Glasgow and the Clyde Valley and Ayrshire Structure Plan areas, is working to produce a co-ordinated Local Transport Strategy. As the public transport authority for the City, Strathclyde Passenger Transport has a key role in delivering a review of the City’s transport infrastructure in support of the Council’s proposals for the regeneration of Glasgow. The review must aspire to set out what is required to reinforce and extend the culture of public transport use in the City, to levels comparable with Glasgow’s European competitors.

The City Council, in association with SPT, will review as a priority, the future public transport needs of Glasgow and consider, in particular, the public transport needs of the City Centre.