Blueprint for the future of public transport network in the spotlight

A blueprint for the future of the public transport network supported by Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram will be considered this week.

Set to go before the Combined Authority today, the new plan is designed to help drive future improvements to the City Region transport network until 2040 and includes:- the City Region's 6 local authority areas for the 1st time.

With a clear vision, goals and set of policies, the proposed plan provides a blueprint for making the transport network safer, more integrated, more attractive, sustainable and accessible to all; which are the key pillars of Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram's vision for a London style transport system.

Its role is to guide future investments designed to continue to support communities and improving transport for everyone while aligning to wider Combined Authority ambitions, for example, achieving net zero emissions by 2035.

Cllr Steve Foulkes, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Transport Committee, said:- "The Local Transport Plan is about making sure we grow our public transport system, supported by franchised bus services and a greatly enhanced rail network, that helps people get to School, work, training and travel for leisure and pleasure. Improving the health and quality of life for people and communities as well as ensuring the network and assets are well maintained are key to its success. We're building from a strong position, fortified by significant achievements including:- our new state of the art trains, a new station at Headbolt Lane and active travel routes, together with franchised bus services and a new Mersey Ferry on the horizon. Delivering the priorities in this plan would enable us to build a fully integrated London-style transport system, along with better connections to and from the Region."

The LTP4 5 goals are:-

• Support good, clean job growth.
  
  

• Achieve net zero carbon and an improved environment.
  
  

• Improve health and quality of life.
  
  

• Transport that's well maintained and tough.
  
  

• Plan and respond to uncertainty and change and be innovative.

THE service visits thousands of false calls every year, with faulty alarms being 1 of the reasons for these callouts. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has been called out to over 18,000 false fire alarms over the past 5 years, a new investigation has revealed. Figures obtained by Personal Injury Claims UK revealed that the service has visited:- 18,335 false fire alarms since April 2019, causing a strain both financially and on the use of resources.

The data also shows that the number of annual visits by the service has stayed consistent over a 5 year period, around the:- 3,500 mark or just over 9 incidents a day, from:- 2019 to 2020, the service attended:- 3707 false fire alarms, which was the 2nd highest number of visits over the past 5 years.

In 2020/2021, this number dropped to the lowest number of this period, which was:- 3339 visits. A year later, this number stayed around the same, only increasing by:- 175 visits to:- 3514, and this was caused by a year of restrictions and lockdowns during the height of the Covid19 Pandemic. As these restrictions lifted, the amount of false fire alarm call outs began to rise again as, in:- 2022/23, the number increased to:- 3612 visits. Over the past year, the service has experienced another increase in the number of false alarm calls, with the number jumping up to:- 4163, in:- 2023/24.

Some common causes of false fire alarms include-

• Faulty or poorly designed equipment.
  

• Poorly trained users.
  

• Lack of maintenance.
  

• Fumes from cooking or burnt food.
  

• Steam from showers.
  

• dust from building or repair work.
  

• Aerosols used near sensors.

Personal Injury Claims UK also obtained figures on how many of these false alarms were caused by faulty equipment.

While the number of faulty fire alarms has fluctuated since:- 2019/20, the amount of callouts caused by faulty equipment has remained low in Merseyside.

With automatic fire alarm systems also being the cause of many false alarm visits, Merseyside Fire and Rescue announced a policy change for responding to fire calls generated by these systems.