Christian Says
May 16th 2012
May 16th 2012
Moving around less
There's an interesting piece in this week's Economist, confirming that we are moving around less: http://www.economist.com/node/21554203 It does seem odd given there are record numbers on the rails and on the Tube, and certainly travelling around the country, one rarely sees an open clear road, but the trend downwards in car travel has now lasted much of the decade and there is no doubting statistics
Yet, overall we are making fewer trips than a decade ago. Instinctively, the statistics feel wrong. Of course the economic situation has reduced demand for travel, as have high fuel prices, but the downward trend started ...
Rail 692: Command paper as bland as MacDonalds
I had expected better. Justine Greening, the transport secretary, is clearly a sharp cookie and has picked up her brief assiduously and rapidly. However, in publishing the long-awaited Command Paper, Putting the customer first, she has clearly allowed the civil servants free rein to produce a document as anodyne as a MacDonald’s hamburger without relish. Any hard decisions have been postponed until later in the year when we hear what ...Cameron on road to nowhere
We have been here before. Lots of times. The idea of trying to turn the roads into some form of cash cow for the government, ostensibly as a way of attracting private investment, has been the subject of government announcements and ‘leaks’ with almost the same regularity that traffic jams form on the M25.
I remember in 1993 going on a special press trip in a little 20 seater plane with ...April 17th, 2012
For Boris and Ken the road is still king
The creation of a mayor for London was supposed to stimulate a new type of politician who would offer brave new ideas for the city. Unfortunately, the paucity of thinking on transport in the manifestos from the two main contenders suggests the experiment has failed.
Ken Livingstone went early on his Big Idea, reducing fares by seven per cent and not increasing them in 2013. His manifesto elaborates on this, promising ...
March 30th, 2012
Boris driverless trains are no such thing
This week has seen the Mayor once again pushing one of his big ideas for re-election: driverless Tubes, bringing with them not just a more high-tech underground but an almighty confrontation with the Tube unions. In the midst of endless wrangles with the unions over Olympic bonuses, Boris Johnson might imagine that’s a popular gesture with voters. Yet he is both dead right and completely wrong about “driverless” trains.
Driverless is ...
