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Transport wish-list
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Today transport minister Alistair Darling outlined his plans for transport in the next few years, involving widening motorways and building a tunnel near stonehenge. Here's what I would like to see the government and other relevant authorities tackling in the near future:
Widening the M8 to 3 lanes. At the moment the M8 is an overcrowded glorified dual carriageway. It desparately needs a third lane in either direction.
Get on with the M77 upgrade. The A77 is an overcrowded death trap. It needs sorting.
Upgrade the Kilmarnock to Dumfries railway line. As the most direct route from Ayrshire to England, this line has great potential, but it is hurt by a 40mph line speed and, like every route I have mentioned so far, it is overcrowded. An increase in linespeed to 70mph will allow far much more traffic to use the line and will speed up diversions from the west coast main line. I was once on a Virgin diversion on this line and it took absolutely ages to get to England.
Abolish the M4 bus lane. This idiotic project is a national joke. Top Gear last week put up a camera over the M4 and in an hour they only saw one coach and a handful of taxis using the lane. The space could be better used by regular traffic.
Widening the M8 to 3 lanes. At the moment the M8 is an overcrowded glorified dual carriageway. It desparately needs a third lane in either direction.
Get on with the M77 upgrade. The A77 is an overcrowded death trap. It needs sorting.
Upgrade the Kilmarnock to Dumfries railway line. As the most direct route from Ayrshire to England, this line has great potential, but it is hurt by a 40mph line speed and, like every route I have mentioned so far, it is overcrowded. An increase in linespeed to 70mph will allow far much more traffic to use the line and will speed up diversions from the west coast main line. I was once on a Virgin diversion on this line and it took absolutely ages to get to England.
Abolish the M4 bus lane. This idiotic project is a national joke. Top Gear last week put up a camera over the M4 and in an hour they only saw one coach and a handful of taxis using the lane. The space could be better used by regular traffic.
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Comments
I believe that the general pattern is that road widening inevitably leads to the new lanes getting clogged anyway..........
Whereas I admit there are a number of roads that will benefit from widening, not to mention the site of Stonehenge getting rid of the roads trapping the monument, it is true that better and bigger roads result in even higher numbers of cars in circulation. Parts of Britain are now effectively suffering from traffic jams twice daily every single day of the year, and the whole country is literally coming to a stop.
Of course, until the public transport mess is sorted many people will continue taking their cars to work, or to the local shopping mall.
eg For me to get to work on a daily basis I'd have to get on a bus to the nearest town, walk from the bus station to the train station, get on a train, get off at my destination, get on a bus to the bus station, then get a another bus to the hospital.
God only knows how long that would take, and how much waiting would be involved. And heaven help if I wanted to pop to the shop on my way home...
Or I could get in my car, which is parked on my drive and then park in the works car park.
And that's the rub really, PT just isn't convenient, and is a long way short of even getting close to being convenient.
What Labour's policy has shown, and the reason for their U-turn, is that all they 've achieved is increased congestion because people just aren't willing to lose that convenience...
public transport cna be made convenient (it already is for many) sustained investment in local and national infrastructure combined with a squeeze on car users will make public transport or more efficient use of private transport the superior option and will save us from the continuing nightnare of congestion, delays and pollution.............
Plus of course PT is useless for the weekly shopping trip. How many housewives do you see on buses struggling to carry all their shopping bags?
One area people could definitely cut down on their car use is, of course, the school run. Get the kids to walk, mums! Its healthier for them and less stressful for you!
I did my bit last week when I went for a job interview in Cambuslang. I took the train
we could build high speed monrails at the sides of the motorways.
we could have small electric plastic runabouts for cheap hire at all the monorail stations. all other cars banned from the city.
i realy dont know fuck all about this. does it show ?
I didn't work for Springfield, It won't work for us.:)
The local council came up with the idea of putting on a night service on the weekend for the clubbers. They would have a few regular buses taking people around the city.
As usual the short sighted people complained en mass, about the fact that why should the young drunks have a service when other services had been cut back or cancelled.
So now I think, the idea has been scrapped.
Am I the only person who could see what a good ideas this was?
Other than an over priced taxi there is no other way to get home in the night. Plenty of people would use the service The money made would go back into the bus companies coffers, and then maybe they could afford to put more buses on elsewhere.
Simple, but there you go, if it's not going to benefit me now, then why bother...
I can see what a good idea it is. In Liverpool there was quite a regular night bus for the students, but in Ayr there is nothing so I have to take a taxi home if I'm on a night out. Obviously there is a demand for this kind of service, and it would definitely be profitable. Whatever the neighbours say, if the young drunks use the buses more than the old ladies going to get their pension, then perhaps the more profitable group should be given the greatest priority.
If you drive, you have your own personal space without eing nudged by some fat, ugly woman.
Dublin has a good night service on the weekends. Called the 'Night link'. Around three quid for the trip. Amazingly cheap for the distance it goes.
Went to get a taxi one night to go home early, he said the destination was outside the area, and had to go and ask someone how much to charge me. I ended up paying £25!:eek2: