Lesson video

Hello, my name is Chloe, and I'm a geography field studies tutor.

This lesson is called Improvements and New Developments in Transport, and it forms part of the economic futures in the UK unit of work.

We're gonna be looking at four different ways that the UK is trying to improve its transport, and we're gonna be thinking about the impacts this will have on people, the environment and the economy.

Let's begin.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to analyse the impacts and potential impacts of new developments in transport infrastructure.

There are three key terms we need to think about.

First of all, compensation.

This is money that is given to someone or a group of people as recognition of the loss of something such as their land when there is a need to build on it.

Transatlantic is something that crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and infrastructure is a network that keeps homes and businesses functioning such as roads, rail lines, pipelines, and energy grids.

There's two key questions we're going to answer today.

The first is how might road and rail projects change transport? And the second is asking the same thing about ports and airports.

Let's start with that first one about road and rail projects.

We're gonna be looking at two projects here, Smart Motorways and High Speed Rail 2.

We're going to examine the features that make these projects different.

Then think about their advantages and disadvantages.

So starting with smart motorways, these are a way of managing traffic on motorways and trying to reduce congestion.

They were introduced in the UK in 2006.

One of the key features of smart motorways is that they can be very wide.

They encompass a number of lanes and sometimes extra lanes will have been built and added to existing motorways.

This is to make sure that they can increase the capacity for the number of vehicles that they're carrying.

Now, what makes them smart rather than just big motorways is that they're monitored by cameras in a central control room.

These cameras and the people that operate them, can see where there's a large amount of congestion and where the roads are more freely flowing and therefore adjust maybe speed limits and adjust the use of the hard shoulder in order to try to reduce congestion.

If you like they're trying to predict and model how the traffic is going to be flowing by using these cameras.

So as I said, sometimes this might mean that vehicles would be allowed to use the hard shoulder in busy periods, infect kind of temporarily widening the motorway to accommodate those extra vehicles.

It also means that they can put in variable speed limits.

They might ask vehicles to slow down to a certain speed limit in order to keep everybody moving rather than create a bottleneck.

Now, the advantages of this is that it means that people can be monitoring the motorway and react really quickly to changes in the flows of traffic.

There is therefore the potential to lower carbon dioxide emissions, because if vehicles aren't being forced to speed up quickly and then slow down rapidly again, this means actually their engines are producing less CO2, it will keep the traffic moving and it could reduce the overall CO2 emissions.

But there's a number of disadvantages that people are very wary of when they're speaking about smart motorways.

The first is the concern about the reduced use of the hard shoulder.

Hard shoulders are generally used for emergencies.

For example, if a car were to break down, it would be in the hard shoulder area.

It's this area towards the left, the far left hand side of the motorway.

It could be used by emergency vehicles as well.

Now, if that hard shoulder is being used for the general flow of traffic, of course that could mean that the hole of the motorway is inaccessible to something like an ambulance wishing to get through.

They can be seen as being quite expensive, costing 15 million pounds per mile of motorway to implement.

It is estimated that all the current and planned smart motorways in the UK are going to cost a total of 3.

2 billion pounds.

Now, let's eavesdrop on a conversation between Alex and Jun here.

Alex is saying, "I hate it when we get stuck in traffic on a motorway." Oh let's face it, nobody enjoys it, do they? "Smart motorways that can stop congestion before it happens must be a good thing." Seems like a sensible argument.

Now, let's see what Jun is saying in reply.

"But won't there be years or even decades of roadworks while they adapt the roads into smart motorways? Won't that actually create congestion?" Interesting point.

Who do you agree with? Let's check our understanding of those first ideas.

Which of these is seen as an advantage of smart motorways? We've got four options here.

Good value for money, potential to lower carbon dioxide emissions, reduced number of vehicles using motorways, or it removes the need for a hard shoulder.

Have a think about everything we've just discussed and then come back to me with the right answer.

Okay, yes, hopefully you remembered that it's all about this idea of lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

The important word here though is potential.

There's only the smallest potential to lower the emissions.

It doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to happen.

Now, another project that we're gonna be looking at is High Speed Rail 2, or you might heard it more often referred in the media as HS2.

This is a new rail line that will create a faster connection between London and Birmingham.

Here's a map of roughly where it's going to go.

It's gonna involve 140 miles of new track and there's gonna be four new stations or additions to current stations, so making some of these stations larger.

Now, the big advantage, which is talked about a lot, is the reduced journey times.

So London to Birmingham currently, depending on which route you take, is roughly around 80 minutes, and this would be reduced down to 49 minutes.

This means that the West Midlands becomes much more accessible to people who live and work in London.

Potentially, this could add a lot of money to the West Midlands economy.

So 10 billion pounds is one figure, which has been estimated for that.

There's also the potential to reduce vehicle journeys, therefore reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted from those vehicles.

People might choose to take the train because it would actually take them so little time compared to what it would take for them to drive the same distance.

But of course there are also some disadvantages.

The project itself is very, very expensive.

It's gonna cost an estimated 67 billion pounds to build this advanced train line.

The line will run very close to some homes.

Some of those homes will have been chosen by their owners for the very reason that they were quiet and isolated and outta the way.

Now they're going to have a train line running right next door to them.

There's also been some criticism about the level of compensation that's going to be paid to farmers who are going to lose their land because the rail line will have to go through it.

It's also gonna be of limited use to some of the cities that are north of Birmingham.

Yes, there will be reduced journey times between London and Birmingham, but if you are in a city further north of that, you are not going to see a huge amount of benefit from this scheme.

Let's listen into another conversation here.

We've got Sophia talking to Sam.

Sophia says, "Imagine if you owned a farm that had been in your family for generations and then someone decided to build train line through it.

I'd be heartbroken, mo amount of compensation can replace that." Sam says, "That's true, but most people aren't farmers.

Imagine living in Birmingham yet working in London, you wouldn't have to pay for an expensive house in the Southeast, but you could still get paid well.

So Sam is recognising that it offers people a lot more flexibility in terms of their working arrangements.

Sophia is thinking about family heritage and how the land might have been used by a single family for generations.

It's a difficult thing to try and balance, isn't it? So who do you agree with? Let's check our understanding about HS2, true or false.

HS2 has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Have a think about that, pause the video and then come back to me.

Okay, let's see your answer.

Yes, well done.

It is true, but why is that true? Well done if you were able to explain the idea that 'cause it's quicker to go by train, it could mean that fewer people are gonna be using their cars for that journey and therefore 'cause there's fewer vehicles on the road, that means there would be reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

Now let's look at our first task of this lesson.

For this, you can choose either the smart motorway or HS2.

Firstly, I'd like you to state whether you think the costs of the project outweigh the benefits.

Or whether the benefits of the project outweigh the costs.

Or whether you think the two are balanced.

So you need to think very carefully about those advantages and disadvantages of the project, as we just mentioned.

After you've done that, to then state one reason why you feel that way.

This is gonna take a bit of thought, perhaps you might wanna discuss it with someone else as well to see what their thoughts are.

So do pause the video and then I'll come back with my ideas.

So let's have a look at your ideas here.

I've chosen smart motorways for this example.

I've said, I believe the benefits of a smart motorway outweigh the costs, so I've made it really clear how I feel about this.

I'm then gonna explain why I feel that way.

I feel this way because I don't believe people will ever give up their cars for other forms of transport.

So anything that can keep traffic moving will be beneficial in the long run.

I've really tried hard to explain my thoughts behind that.

Now, you might have chosen a very different scenario, and that's fine as well.

Do look at the depth of your explanation.

Have you really justified why you have chosen that particular scenario? Looking now to the second part of the lesson, we're gonna look at how might larger ports and airports create change.

We're gonna be looking at, again, two examples here.

We're gonna look at the Liverpool2 port, and we're gonna be looking at Heathrow and the potential for airport expansion there.

Again, we'll be thinking about the features of these projects, the advantages and the disadvantages.

Liverpool2 is now the UK's largest transatlantic port for container ships.

The animation here shows you the kind of scale we are looking at.

In the centre, at the top there you can see the containers all laid out in sequence ready to be loaded onto a new ship, or maybe they've just come off some.

It took a 400 million pound private investment to create this extension to Liverpool port.

That investment bought 10 cranes, and they sit at the mouth of the River Mersey where the water is deepest.

Now that deep water is actually a key advantage of this new terminal.

It means that larger ships now have access to the dock to load and offload their cargo.

The 10 new cranes make the whole process much more efficient.

That means that loading and offloading happens much more quickly, and with all this new activity in the port, it's created a lot more jobs as well.

Now, let's listen in on Aisha and Jacob.

Aisha is saying, "It's great that all these new infrastructure projects create jobs for people." But Jacob says, "Would all the jobs last though? "The jobs in construction would only be short term and some of the other jobs would need specialists who might not be local to the area?" Now, is Jacob right to be sceptical? Or actually are these projects really good for the local economy? Building the Liverpool2 port also brought some disadvantages.

Building the terminal involved dredging the estuary bed, and this meant that there was the removal and disruption of marine habitats.

That dredging had to happen in order to make sure that the channel was deep enough to receive those larger ships.

Because that sediment is being removed from the coastal system, it wouldn't naturally flow further up the coast where it would form beaches.

That means that those areas further north and now more susceptible to coastal erosion.

Let's check our understanding.

True or false, building infrastructure projects always creates long-term job opportunities.

Think about that conversation that we looked into with Aisha and Jacob.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, let's have a look.

So yes, it's false.

Why is it false? Well done if you recognise that many of the jobs in the construction of the projects would be short term and involve specialist skills, and because of this, it might mean that they would only be needed for part of the construction time.

Now, let's look at London Heathrow.

It's one of the world's busiest airports.

The authority that runs the airport has proposed plans to expand it in a couple of ways.

First of all, they'd like to have a third runway, and this is to run to the north of the current two.

With that runway, they would need another terminal.

This would mean Heathrow would have a total of six terminals now.

It would also need taxiways to enable the planes to move from one part of the airport to another.

Now, let's look at some of the advantages of these plans.

Now, we already know that air travel is becoming increasingly popular, and London Heathrow is one of the world's busiest airports.

This means there are frequently delays for those aeroplanes.

If there were to be a third runway and a sixth terminal, it is thought that those delays would be reduced because London Heathrow would be able to meet demand.

Now, when those planes are delayed, they're often left circling in the air, and of course that is producing CO2 emissions.

An argument is if there are fewer delays, there would be fewer CO2 emissions from those delayed flights.

Another advantage is the boost that the Heathrow expansion could potentially bring to the UK economy, something in the region of 200 billion pounds.

Of course, there are disadvantages as well.

The biggest of these is the idea that any increase in capacity at London Heathrow means that there will be overall a greater number of flights.

This is in direct contradiction to the UK's pledge to fight climate change in the Paris agreement.

Construction or particularly of the sixth terminal will involve 700 homes and a whole village being demolished.

Locals who live near to that sixth terminal and especially near to the third runway, are going to suffer from increased noise pollution.

Let's now listen in on a conversation between Laura and Andeep.

Laura says, "I find it really hard to work out if infrastructure projects are actually beneficial or not." Andeep says, "Yes, me too.

The issue is that sometimes the projects cause problems for local people that have huge benefits for the wider economy.

Some impacts are felt straight away while others are only felt after a long time." In fact, another key thing that Andeep hasn't mentioned is that sometimes you don't even know what the full impact of something is going to be until it's already been built.

Let's check our understanding by this task.

Complete the sentences with the missing words.

Pause the video so you can have a read of the paragraph and then come back to me with the right answers.

Right, let's see what you got.

A third runway at Heathrow has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions because planes will not be waiting in the air for a slot to land.

However, emissions would potentially increase because a larger airport may mean a greater amount of total air travel.

It's really important to try to balance those two points there.

Your second task, and for this again, you can make a choice.

You can choose either Liverpool2 container port project, or the Heathrow Airport expansion project.

Imagine you are someone who lives close to the project.

Write a statement about why you are for or against it.

So have a think, what would it be like to live close to that Heathrow airport expansion? Or what kind of benefits might you get if you live close to Liverpool2 container port? Pause the video and have a think about this, and I'll tell you what I think in a moment.

Now, I've chosen the Liverpool two container port, and I've chosen to have somebody who lives locally and is in favour of the changes.

Let's see what I put.

Though the construction of the new Liverpool2 container port was noisy and caused disruption.

I now feel so proud to have this world class facility in my home city.

It reminds me of how connected Liverpool is.

I have friends who now work in the port and it brings extra money into their lives and into the city.

Have a look through your own answer and think about the depth to which you have been able to explain whether it's an advantage or a disadvantage to live close to that infrastructure project.

Let's now summarise our learning from this lesson.

Transport infrastructure projects are designed to improve the movement of people and goods.

Smart motorways, HS2, the Liverpool2 port and the Heathrow airport expansion are examples of infrastructure projects.

While they may result in improvements, they can also bring disadvantages.

Impacts can be felt locally, regionally, and nationally, as well as in the long and short term.

Now, this lesson only looked at four different infrastructure projects.

You may have one in your local area that you might want to think about researching as well.

Do talk to people around you to find out what they think about the changes that either are being proposed or that have already happened.