'Transport for Quality of Life'

December 2020 Friends of the Earth Activists’ Briefing: Making transport fit for the Climate Emergency Ian Taylor and Lisa Hopkinson, Transport for Quality of Life   

I strongly agree with Ian and Lisa and think that FoE and Greenpeace should insist on public ownership, as here:

"These problems are structural, and it is only by changing the structure of the railway so that it is a single entity operating under public control, in the public interest, and with an objective to act in such a way as to reduce carbon emissions from transport to the greatest extent possible, that they can be resolved. Transport for Quality of Life has carried out research in this area and is of the view that public ownership is necessary to achieve this. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have not carried out research in this area so do not have a position on public ownership, but do believe that the structure of the railway needs to change to be managed as a single entity and under public control." (my emphasis)

However, I do think all three organisations need to also come out against the unnecessary and most unhelpful fragmentation of our transport provision into bus, tram and train.  And, bus is being added to with the superbus, Sprint diesel, to further complicate life!!  All of you are fully supportive of light rail trams taking over bus and train routes.  As Ian and Lisa have written, here:

"In fact there would be very substantial resources left over for investment in improving bus services, or building tram networks."  p 17

and,

"where excellent new public transport infrastructure (such as tram lines) will be provided", p 20.  

and,

"The necessary changes to our transport system will cost money. In the next 10 years we must invest at an unprecedented rate in new tram networks, rail electrification, green electric buses, cycleways and healthy streets for walking. Substantial ongoing revenue funding will be required to run free local public transport services."  p 22

So don't encourage tram extensions at ten times the cost per Km of rebuilding the Borders Railway in Sept 2015 when it reopened!  £7m/Km for the rebuilt railway; £81 m/Km, plus cost overruns for the new 1.7 Kms Brum Eastside Metro tram.

And,

"to infrastructure that cuts carbon emissions, such as tram lines, bus priority networks, cycleways and healthy streets for walking." p 22

"There is thus no shortage of potential funding. Rather, the issues we need to fix are that money is being spent on the wrong things, building roads that make carbon emissions worse, instead of tram lines, cycleways and healthy streets for walking; and we do not yet have the mechanisms to secure contributions from all those who will benefit from a better transport system. p 24  

Stick to bus and train, only.  For three good reasons:

1. Spending = finite fossil fuels used = greenhouse gases emitted = climate catastrophe = END!
2. Trams are the second most expensive transport mode to construct after HS2 and even most Maglev train projects in S Korea, China and Japan.  See:
   
    Like for like comparison of infrastructure buil...
3. UK Tram Ltd called the tram "a bus on rails" at the time of the Croydon tram crash that killed seven and seriously injured 62 passengers, 19 seriously, in November 2016.  SOURCE: Radion 4 'Today' interview with Andrew Broddick of UK Tram.  Seven would be alive today if the railway line had been used for trains linking into buses on roads.

I wrote this to Keith Budden of Cenex last year.  Keith also gets a mention in your paper:

"Why are Metro trams - and two other types - taking over our Worcester to Derby railway via the Black Country?

Why are "bus on rails" trams chosen over commuter, regional and freight trains on two short sections of a half-finished, 120 Kms principal, mainline railway "of national strategic significance" that runs from Worcester to Derby via Kidderminster and Dudley?  

There are proposals and, active plans now being implemented, for three different kinds of trams over four short sections of this nationally important, partly finished railway!!  Pre Metro shuttle tram, Very Light Rail tram and Light Rail tram.

Why complicate public transport travel in this way?

Why so many changes to make a public transport journey?  It's quite enough to put the most ardent environmentalist off and to get out the bike, instead but we are thin on the ground!

Why cannibalise unused railway lines for tram lines?  And, leave many miles of unused railway lines wasted for more decades or forever!

Has no one thought of trains for train lines that have not yet been used for the bizarre, eccentric activity of running homes, offices, shops and roads down them?

Complete amateurs have rebuilt entire railway lines.  Why can't the professionals put TRAINS BACK on existing, entire, already built railway lines?"

from Ian and Lisa's paper:

"As a result of Covid-19, public funds have been providing the great majority of bus company operating costs, so the step to provision of free bus services is not now such a large one. If the present level of funding is justifiable to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, surely it is at least as justifiable to tackle the Climate Emergency?" 

And, 

"Drastic cuts in central UK government funding over the last decade have led to cuts in local transport services and spending. At the same time local authorities find it hard to get government funding for measures that can cut transport carbon, such as the Leeds Supertram."  Always super flash, over-indulgent, show off, grossly extravagant trams to impress visitors.  Always style over substance!  With the Sheffield Supertram, £75 m was spent on changing a railway to tramway to allow the Supertram to run from Sheffield Cathedral to Parkgate Shopping Centre - all of 12 Kms.  What was wrong with a bus without rails directly on roads?  And electric, too?

Should the least well off without cars, and everyone, not just the elderly, be rewarded with, and compensated for the slightly higher risk of getting Covid when travelling on bus, train and tram, by being given Fare-Free Public Transport? About 100 towns and cities around the world have it, including Dunkirk, Luxembourg and Tallinn Estonia.

I feel that the £15 billion to 2040, going into mainly underground and overground Metro trams to replace some buses and trains, should be used to pay for it all. And, thus, raise the status and attractiveness of bus travel that is, far and away, the most well-used mode.

Andy is very keen on trams because it adds to the public transport pool of different ways of getting about on public transport. He calls it multi-modal public transport. Unfortunately, it ends up being multi-mixed up; and, with yet more changes and slower journeys between the different modes. It is much better just to stick to the bus and train. Simpler, quicker and fewer changes.

AN EXAMPLE for those who come into the city centre on Hagley Road:-

All eleven bus routes down Hagley Road now get diverted on a longer and slower journey into Colmore Row via the Arena. And, the bus no longer uses the underpass at Five Ways which is given over to the tram, permanently! If we change for the tram at 54 Hagley Road, we then have to cross the busy main road and wait for the tram (opens 2021). Again, a slower and less helpful journey to hardly encourage people to give up the car and use the bus! And those without cars are penalised, once again. So give them Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) as a reward, on bus priority roads.  Paid for by abandoning "bus on rails" tram extensions!

Best wishes - and please give me your reasons for tram construction, Ian and Lisa.