London scoping - ukcip

Final Report
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‘Y’ indicates that adaptation options have been identified by stakeholders to reduce
climate change impacts. They are currently being considered for inclusion in
general sectoral development strategies.
‘N’ denotes the fact that options either have not been identified, or are not being
considered in strategy development.
‘-’ denotes that it is inapplicable i.e. the impact identified is a beneficial one.
‘*’ denotes the net effect is indeterminate.
There is then presented a brief overall summary of economic impacts on London.
7.3 Transport
7.3.1 Context
London is a national and international transport hub for road, rail, air and shipping in addition to
supporting movements within the city. Each working day 466,000 peak period commuters
come into the city centre and 7 million walking trips are made. It is therefore critical to the
effective workings of the city’s economy. The Mayor’s Transport Strategy 1 for London notes,
though, that whilst the city has “seen two decades of rising population and a decade of
expanding economic growth and employment, this growth has not been matched by the
investment necessary to provide the public transport, affordable housing and public services that
are essential for economic efficiency and the wellbeing of London’s population”.
The Strategy document goes onto say that there is therefore “a growing crisis on London’s
transport system – with some roads approaching gridlock and severe overcrowding, discomfort,
unreliability and equipment failures on the Underground and National Rail network”. The
Strategy therefore envisages a significant expansion and improvement in public transport
provision in London, including cross London rail links, three new river crossings in and around
London, the completion of the Channel Tunnel rail link and substantially increased capacity at
airports in the eastern half of the metropolitan area.
Against this background, the stakeholder consultation suggests that the following types of
impact on London’s transport system may be most significant:
Disruption to transport modes from flooding and other extreme weather events;
Changes in the types of journey taken e.g. if summer heat island effects have
significant impacts on the willingness to commute into central London;
Switches between transport modes as a result of changing travel conditions.
These impacts are explored in more detail below, on a transport mode basis. We then draw
together conclusions as to how climate change may impact on the operation of the existing
transport strategy.
1 http://www.london.gov.uk/approot/mayor/strategies/transport/index.jsp