© Association for European Transport and contributors 2007 1 DEVELOPING A SUB-REGIONAL TRANSPORT STRATEGY FOR REGENERATION AND GROWTH ANDY DOBSON DAVID SIMMONDS David Simmonds Consultancy OLIVER CAPON ANDREW POTTER Mouchel Parkman ANDREW ASH TRL 1 INTRODUCTION The Thames Gateway area is Europe’s largest regeneration project and a national priority. It extends for 40 miles along the River Thames from the London Docklands in the west to Southend in Essex and Sheerness in Kent to the east. In this paper, having provided a brief overview of the Regeneration Project, we focus upon the South Essex part of the Thames Gateway and describe the development of an integrated land use and transportation model, that was commissioned by Essex County Council, to assist with the development of a transport strategy that would support the regeneration and proposed growth in housing and employment. The paper continues with a description of various applications of the model. These demonstrate its potential for assessing the impact of different transportation options and their resilience to a range of economic and demographic scenarios. 2 THAMES GATEWAY 2.1 The Context The Thames Gateway area covers an extensive area that takes in the London Docklands, parts of Kent to the south of the Thames Estuary and parts of Essex to the north of the Estuary. Its regeneration has been identified as a national priority; indeed it has been described as ‘the UK Government’s top priority for regeneration and growth’ i . The Government’s vision is to transform