Changing transport policy…
The Trafford Centre Travel Plan has been prepared in response to changes in national policy which were initially set in the Government’s White Paper ‘A New Deal for Transport’. This policy document makes it clear that simply building new roads to accommodate future demand for travel is often not a sustainable option. Instead, we need to make the best use of the infrastructure we have - both road and public transport - and to reduce overall dependency on the private car. Without this, it is anticipated that traffic growth in the UK as a whole could result in half as much traffic again on our roads within 25 years. The Government’s Transport Policy has encouraged organisations to consider the take up of travel plans. The Trafford Centre strongly supports this initiative and is proud to be one of the largest organisations in Greater Manchester to have voluntarily developed its own Travel Plan in response to the challenge. We recognise that it is important to respond positively and to develop a travel strategy that will benefit both staff and visitors, achieve clear environmental benefits and complement other development proposals within The Trafford Centre locality.
The benefits of implementing a travel plan…
Government guidance in ‘Preparing your organisation for transport in the future: The benefits of Green Transport Plans’ demonstrates a wide variety of benefits to an organisation, its customers and staff in implementing a travel plan including reduced travel costs, improved efficiency and overall environmental and health benefits. We believe that the main benefits of investing in a Travel Plan for The Trafford Centre can be summarised as
• Improving accessibility to The Trafford Centre for those individuals without access to a private car;
• Enhancing the environmental performance of The Trafford Centre;
• Reducing the proportion of trips to The Trafford Centre using the private car by offering travel choice;
• Improving employee and visitor health by providing the opportunity for healthy travel choices;
• Providing individual cost savings and benefits for travellers.
One of our key goals for The Trafford Centre Travel Plan is to maintain good road access whilst providing a range of alternative travel opportunities to ensure that staff and visitors will continue to be able to access The Trafford Centre quickly, conveniently and reliably.