Tim, There is not a simple answer to your question.
What has been happening in recent years of muddled thinking, marketing, and attitude alteration in our comfortable country in a world in crisis, is that many mistakes have been made in transport.
The anti HS2 bandwagon is an easy one to clamber aboard, but it is an opposition sleeper train with strange bedfellows. The StopHS2 website is brilliant, the campaigning impressive. A great example today that bentonite (basically clay) commonly used in construction, is painted in the National press as a deadly contaminant. It is a contaminant and we do not want it in aquifers or in watercourses, but sense of proportion folks.
So these other things - very light rail, ultra light rail, light rail etc. Does not really have to be so separate. The lorry driver switches from a motorway to a trunk road to a principal road etc etc - one injection of fuel covers it all. The same should be the case with a passenger - boards a bus in Lutterworth and on the same ticket reaches Wellington.
The price per mile of transport infrastructure is alarming. Read James Meek 01 04 04 The Guardian and its about seven times what is was supposed to cost. The 'it' is The West Coast Main Line modernisation'
Finally acknowledging Climate Change is allowed. Where is Modal Shift in current transport planning ? I would recommend the ice.org website, the Institution of Civil Engineers website and the film by their President Rachael Skinner on Climate Change
I agree with you that a lot more discussion is needed.
Best
JD
No comments:
Post a Comment