Town's public transport plans - Northampton may use Rapid Transport System to wage 13-year war on cars

A plan for an environmentally sustainable transport system that will cut car usage in Northampton by 25 per cent over the next 13 years has been submitted for planning approval.

The Rapid Transport System is to be entirely funded by the private sector and has the support of both the county and borough councils.

The proposed system will enable public transport services to operate like normal buses in outlying residential areas and then transfer onto the guided rapid transport network in town.

Alex Robinson of RTI stressed that the construction consortium has insisted "that the vehicles should be gas powered, reducing emissions to one tenth that of current diesel engines,"

One of the major aims of the RTI system is to attract people back to the public transport system.

Northampton has one of the worst records in the country for car usage with public transport accounting for less than 10 per cent of journeys. Between 1977 and 1995 private vehicle traffic grew by 180 per cent in the Greater Northampton area which is more than double the average traffic growth for the rest of the UK.

Robinson said: "We need to stop our cities choking on car congestion, which means tackling 'car culture' head on."

The RTS is being financed through a new local initiative which will involve charging those using new development land and benefiting from the new system.

Some 1,000 acres of land has been released for business development with Northampton planning to build 1,000 new homes each year until 2006.

The RTI will link residential, commercial and industrial districts and they will pay for the pleasure of using the new system.