Factsheets - No.4: European Best Practice

This fact sheet accompanies a CfIT report on European best practice in the delivery of integrated transport. The report is based on pre-1998 data, the latest available across Europe.

Rail

• Fewer rail passenger coaches per 1000 population than any other European country except Greece, Ireland and Spain and Portugal
• Only Greece and Holland have fewer train kilometres per 1000 of population
• Lower share of rail use than anywhere else in Europe

Buses

• Over last 20 years, coach and bus use grew by up to 80% in most of Europe aside from a few countries, including the UK, where use declined
• However, bus use has started to grow in the UK (up 0.9% last year), though largely driven by London
• Coach and bus use is 35% below the European average
• Average size of bus and coach fleets
• The UK makes greater use of smaller vehicles
• Germany and Holland have fewer buses - because they rely on trams

Revenue Support/fares

• Lowest level of public subsidy for fares in Europe
• We have the most efficient operators, but because of low subsidies we have the highest fares
• Typical public transport journey in UK costs three times as much as in Holland
• Our fares are among the highest in Europe - only behind Denmark and Sweden

Investment in Infrastructure

• Below the EU average throughout the mid-1990s
• France and Germany invested around double the levels of the UK in 1996 (0.6% of GDP, compared to 1.1% in France and 1.15% in Germany and 1.25% in Italy)

Cars

• Car use up 52% in 80s and 90s - more than other European countries except the developing economies like Portugal, Greece and Italy
• Highest proportion of passenger kilometres by car in Europe
• Almost 9 in 10 motorised journeys are by car, compared with EU average of 8 in 10
• Low differential in costs of car travel and public transport in London is a disincentive to modal shift

Roads

• We have only half the road space per head of the European average (7 kilometres per 1000 people compared with 13)
• We have less than half the average of the European motorway network for geographical density (0.06km compared with 0.14km)

Congestion

• The UK has the most severe congestion in Europe with 25% of the most heavily used motorways and roads suffering from it
• More than 11% of key roads have bottlenecks of more than three hours
• Has detrimental effects on speed of public transport with London buses being slower than those in Rome, Berlin, Madrid and Athens
• Helps explain why British workers spend more time commuting each day (46 mins.) than their European counterparts (e.g. Italy 23 mins.)
• The now defunct European Centre for Infrastructure Studies attributes the cause of congestion in the UK to be persistent under-investment
• The public perception is one of widespread congestion in the UK

Two Wheelers

• Lowest number of powered two wheelers - one tenth those of Italy and Greece

Walking

• We walk less than anywhere else in Europe except Greece (415 kilometres a year compared with the European average of 437)
• This is down by about 10% in 25 years (from 469 kilometres a year to 415), but is starting to pick up again

Cycling

• We have one of the lowest levels in Europe
• Less than mountainous countries like Italy and Austria and similar to hotter, Mediterranean climates
• We only cycle 77 kilometres a year compared with a European average of 189
• The Dutch cycle 856 kilometres a year and the Danes 901
• Journeys by bike make up just 2% of the journeys we take

Road Safety

• We have the best roads fatality record in Europe (6 deaths per 100,000 compared with an EU average of 11.4)
• However, injury accidents are well above the EU average - at 415 per 100,000 compared with 346, two to three times the level of Scandinavian countries
• Cyclists and pedestrians are in greater danger than most industrialised countries in Europe
• Motorcyclists and moped and scooter users are five times more likely to be killed as those in Italy and three times those in Finland
• Cyclists are twice as likely to die as those in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden

Transport Emissions

• Emission savings through technological advances offset by increases in car use (below average increase in CO₂, but above average in NOx ⁽¹⁾ and NMOCs ⁽²⁾ ).

(1) Nitrogen Oxides - affects immune system responses
(2) Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds - causes numerous health problems

Return to: Study of European best practice in the delivery of integrated transport index