The Royal Commission on London Traffic was a royal commission established in 1903 with a remit to review and report on how transport systems should be developed for London and the surrounding area. It produced a report in eight volumes published in 1905 and made recommendations on the character, administration and routing of traffic in London.
Establishment The Royal Commission on London Traffic was established on 10 February 1903. It had 13 commissioners and was chaired by Sir David Barbour. Its secretary was Lynden Macassey and the other commissioners were:
Earl Cawdor, Chairman of the Great Western Railway Viscount Cobham Baron Ribblesdale Sir Joseph Dimsdale MP, member of parliament for the City of London and former Lord Mayor of London Sir Robert Reid MP, former Attorney General Sir John Dickson-Poynder MP, member of the London County Council
Sir John Wolfe Barry, former President of the Institution of Civil Engineers Sir Francis Hopwood, Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade Sir George Trout Bartley MP, member of parliament for Islington North Charles Murdoch, Assistant Under Secretary at the Home Department Felix Schuster, Banker George Gibb, General Manager of the North Eastern Railway
Remit The commission's remit was to report on London's traffic arrangements and: (a) as to measures which the commission deem most effectual for the improvement of the same by the development and inter-connexion of Railways and Tramways on, or below, the surface; by increasing the facilities for other forms of mechanical locomotion; by better provision for the organization and regulation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, or otherwise; (b) as to the desirability of establishing some authority or tribunal to which all schemes of Railway or Tramway construction of a local character should be referred, and the powers which it could be advisable to confer on such a body.
The area of the commission's scope covered the Metropolitan Police District, an area of and a population of more than 6.5 million in 1901. In its report the commission described this as "Greater London" and the urban developed area at its centre as "the Metropolis". The area beyond the Metropolis was described as "Extra London".
Investigation The commission held 112 meetings and interviewed 134 witnesses. Members of the commission carried out fact-finding visits to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington in 1903 and to Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Cologne, Dresden, Berlin, Brussels and Paris in 1904.
An advisory board of three engineers was appointed to give the commission technical advice. Chaired by Sir John Wolfe Barry (a member of the commission), its other members were Sir Benjamin Baker, former President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and William Barclay Parsons, Chief Engineer to the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners of the City of New York.
In 1898 Sir John Wolfe Barry had reviewed the development of London over the preceding 50 years and set out proposals for the improvement of east-west communication, including a 120-foot wide road connecting Bayswater Road with Commercial Road.
Report and recommendations The commission's report, Report of the Royal Commission Appointed to Inquire Into and Report Upon the Means of Locomotion and Transport in London, was published in eight volumes on 17 July 1905.
The report examined the historic development of road, rail and tram transportation and the current condition. It made recommendations for improvements to roads within London's central area and arterial roads; for improvements in tramways including new routes and for improvements in railways of all types including their connections to one another. Recommendations were made as on road traffic regulations and the commission recommended the establishment of a Traffic Board to manage traffic developments in the Greater London area and carry out preliminary reviews of bills for traffic schemes before they were submitted to parliament.
Roads The report identified that road traffic was constrained by the narrowness of many of London's roads which reflected the historic development of the city.
The report recommended that a comprehensive plan should be developed to improve road provision and routing to be carried out over the long term and that new roads should be constructed to standard widths depending on their importance and that existing main routes should be widened when possible.
Recommended road improvements
The advisory board recommended construction of two "Main Avenues". These would be wide between buildings with four tram lines on the road and four railway lines in a sub-surface tunnel immediately beneath. Two of the tram lines and two of the railway lines would be for express services and service tunnels would be provided for utilities beneath the wide pavements. The Main Avenues would connect areas on the outskirts of the main urban area and tramways and railway lines would be connected to these at both ends:
A: New Main Avenue, West to East – Bayswater Road to Whitechapel running from Victoria Gate of Hyde Park, through Portman Square, Russell Square, London Wall to the junction of Commercial Road and Whitechapel High Street. B: New Main Avenue, North to South – Holloway to Elephant & Castle running via Caledonian Road and Gray's Inn Road and including a new bridge over the River Thames to the west of Blackfriars Bridge.
The Main Avenues would cross at Gray's Inn Road. Definitive routes were not proposed, but the report recognised that the scale of the projects would require them to be carried out as a complete exercise. The cost of both Main Avenues was estimated to be £30 million (equivalent to approximately £ today) for the of new roads, tramways and railways.
Other main road improvements recommended by the advisory board were: C: Widening of Marylebone Road and Euston Road. D: Construction of a new street between Marylebone Road and Edgware Road. E: Extension of The Mall to Charing Cross (now the north end of Whitehall). F: Widening of Constitution Hill. G: Widening of Princes Street, Westminster and construction of a new street along the east side of St James's Park to Waterloo Place and Duke of York's Column. H: Widening of Broad Sanctuary, Westminster. I: Widening of Uxbridge Road and Bayswater Road. J: Widening of Hammersmith Road and Kensington Road. K: Widening of Fulham Road and Brompton Road. L: Widening of King's Road, Chelsea. M: Extension of West Cromwell Road. N: Widening of King Street, Hammersmith. O: Widening of Wandsworth Road, Lavender Hill, St John's Hill and Wandsworth High Street from Lambeth to Putney. P: Widening of Brentford High Street or construction of a new street. Q: Viaduct from Blackfriars Bridge to Farringdon Street. The viaduct would start in the centre of the bridge and run to just south of Holborn Viaduct to relieve congestion at the north end of the bridge and at Ludgate Circus. R: Viaduct from Waterloo Bridge to Wellington Street to segregate traffic from the bridge from east-west traffic along Strand. S: Construction of a new street from Berkeley Square to the Mall via the eastern side of Green Park with branches to connect to Jermyn Street and Pall Mall. T: Widening Marble Arch between Edgware Road and Park Lane.
The report indicated that there were many other roads and junctions that required improvements including for main roads leading out of London. For the latter the report recommended that this should be a responsibility for the Traffic Board to report on when established. Although it did not make any recommendations on the subjects, the report noted that submissions made to the commission, included suggestions for "making roads in different directions out of London", "constructing a circular road about 75 miles in length at a radius of 12 miles from St Paul's", "providing alternative streets parallel to crowded thoroughfares, and new streets" and "removing factories from London".
Tramways
The report identified that the existing tramway systems were fragmented and lacked connections. Compared to other British cities, Greater London's tramway systems were significantly under-developed. The report criticised the London County Council's (LCC's) policy of refusing to allow the privately owned tramways operating outside the county's boundary to connect to and operate over its municipally owned system within. It also criticised the failure of the County to join its three separate systems together and to allow trams in the central areas of the City of London and the West End.
The report recommended that interconnection of the existing tramways be undertaken and recommended construction of many new routes in areas not served and that through running of services between different operators be allowed. The report recommended that vetoes held by the London County Council and the municipal boroughs within it over the construction of new tramways should be abolished.
The advisory board recommended the construction of 23 new tramways to connect the separate systems and bring trams to unserved areas. It estimated that the cost of constructing double line tramways was four to five per cent of the cost of constructing a cut and cover line such as the Metropolitan Railway or 13 to 17 per cent of the cost of a deep-level tube line such as the Central London Railway.
The advisory board recognised that it was making recommendations at a time of flux. Until 1 March 1905 motor omnibuses weighing more than 3 tons unladen had been subject to the Locomotive Acts, so horse omnibuses outnumbered motor omnibuses 100:1. The advisory board's main concern was to reduce congestion and this reduced to a question whether omnibuses or tramcars are the more convenient way of conveying traffic in a public street. ... many of the views expressed would have to be modified considerably if a comparison has to be made between electric tramcars and motor omnibuses, the future of which is at present uncertain
Recommended tramway improvements
The new routes recommended by the advisory board were: Route 1: Across Hammersmith Bridge – to connect the London County Council Tramways' (LCCT's) planned terminus at the north end to the London United Tramways' (LUT's) terminus at the south end. Route 2: Hammersmith to Knightsbridge – Hammersmith Broadway running via Hammersmith Road, Kensington Road and Knightsbridge to the north end of Sloane Street. Route 3: Knightsbridge to Aldgate – continuing Route 2 and running below ground in a subway from the junction of Albert Gate and Knightsbridge via Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly, Coventry Street, Leicester Square, King William Street, Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, Cheapside, Cornhill, Leadenhall Street to the 's terminus in Aldgate High Street. Route 4: Fulham and Brompton Road – running from a junction with the 's planned terminus in Fulham Palace Road and Fulham High Street via Fulham Road and Brompton Road and ending at a junction with Routes 2 and 3 at the north end of Sloane Street. Route 5: Grosvenor Place and Hyde Park – running from the 's terminus in Vauxhall Bridge Road via Victoria Street, Grosvenor Gardens, Grosvenor Place and Hyde Park to the southern end of Edgware Road. The section from Grosvenor Gardens to Edgware Road would run in a subway, part of which was to be under Hyde Park. Route 6: Edgware Road and Maida Vale – running from a junction with Route 5 at Marble Arch via Edgware Road, Maida Vale, Kilburn High Road to a junction with the Middlesex County Council's Light Railways' terminus at Cricklewood. Route 7: Harrow Road – running from a junction with the Harrow Road and Paddington Tramways' (HR&PT's) terminus in Harrow Road via Harrow Road, Westbourne Terrace and Bishops Road to a junction with Routes 6 and 22 in Edgware Road. Route 8: Cambridge Avenue – running from a junction with the 's terminus in Cambridge Road via Cambridge Avenue to a junction with Route 6 in Edgware Road.