Cheaper By Car - Article
Can road pricing pay for improved public transport?
Where is the incentive to use more ecological transport solution? Clearly as this site proves in most examples so far, it is far cheaper to travel using a car. Go to Daily commute, Not just by car, how about a rocket? or UK rail fare’s third highest in Europe to see why.
There is obviously a problem. Congestion on the roads, crowded trains. The transport infrastructure of the whole South East of England is completely over whelmed. I’ve never heard a traffic report in the morning that didn’t contain news of queues and accidents on the M1 Southbound; on the other side of the coin, I’ve never managed to get a seat in the morning on the way into London, in fact, on occasions I’ve become distressingly familiar with complete strangers when we’ve all been packed in like sardines.
Is the solution improved railway networks? More trains? The rail companies aren’t likely to put more services on if no one is going to use them, it’s a vicious circle. Until the services improve, no one will use them, if no one uses them, then the services don’t have the money to improve them.
So discourage road use, why doesn’t the government charge for the use of the road and pass that money back into the public transport infrastructure?
According to “Detica“:
Two thirds say improved public transport will solve road congestion, but almost half want cheaper fares to encourage switch from car to train
Also, why do have “peak times”? This is as likely to discourage people from using the trains as anything, paying more than normal to travel into work. Wouldn’t the solution to train overcrowding be to provide more trains? Or improve stations to take longer trains?
“In some circumstances there is undoubtedly scope for additional rail infrastructure - either in more track or longer stations to accommodate longer trains. Where this is not an option, there is scope for more advanced network optimisation and control systems to be deployed that can efficiently increase the throughput of trains on existing track.”
Surely as soon as the investments are made to improve the system, more people will use them, more revenue can be created resulting in lower prices.
References: Detica - Public want road pricing to pay for reduction in rail fares and improved services
Technorati Tags: Cheaper by car, road pricing, congestion, train overcrowding
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