If you want an economy to grow faster you need to create transport systems that allow people and goods to get about easily and at sensible cost.
For years under all 3 main parties in Parliament the U.K. has followed an anti car,truck and van policy. Nationalised roads have been kept in short supply. Road management has often been designed to impede vehicles seeking to use them
Despite this people and companies have continuously decided road vehicles are the most flexible and useful means of getting about for all but the shortest distances where walking is best. People value the way their car or van is always available when they want it and will leave when they wish. They like the ability to get to virtually every address in the country allowing door to door travel,
Governments prefer rail. Rail does not allow address to address travel unless you live next to a station and want to make a visit to a business or company next to another station, You are limited in what you can carry onto a train and place in the rack, whilst you can get plenty of things in your car or van. Rail only goes when they want to, and may let you down with delay or cancellation. You need to work out how to get to the departure station and from the arrival station. The fare can be high.
Sending more goods by rail could be an excellent idea but it needs sidings for the delivery point and single waggon marshalling to allow smaller consignments than a trainload. It is possible to use containers, picking them up with tractor units for short end delivery trips.
It is not going to be practical to go shopping by train. Trains dont have stops at schools for the school run. The small business providing service at home for people needs a flexible van to get around and fit enough in during the day. Tomorrow we will look at how to configure our roads for growth,
August 4, 2024
âGovernments prefer rail.â Why do our moronic governments prefer rail? It is far more expensive per mile despite huge tax subsidies and huge over taxing of cars and vans. It is less flexible, not door to door, cannot be used to store and transport good easily. Despite this vast market rigging the vast majority of journeys are made by road. Even the ones made by rail often need cars, taxis, cycling or bus road travel at each end. Train travel does not even save CO2 significantly. This when end journeys, staff, ticketing, rail maintenance is considered. Train travel is often circa ÂŁ1 a mile, actually more like ÂŁ2 as ÂŁ1 is subsidy. A full car can be more like 10p a mile, hugely more flexible and of the 10p about half is tax. If we had a level tax and subsidy playing field and better roads and parking train use would be less than half what it is.
EVs save no CO2 the EV agenda is clearly to force poor people off the road and restrict them to 15 minute cities. Road blocking and camera fines is all part of this agenda.
August 4, 2024
Yes, our host is making common sense observations about rail at last, rather than trying to suggest ways to keep them running. For sure there are a few lines and services that might be business viable, but think of all the track routes that could be roads, and valuable city and town real estate that could be repurposed and developed for housing, social and retail. Learn from Hong Kong and Singapore.
Please ask how many of those violent thugs have been interviewed and asked about their political views before branding them ‘Far Right’. You can be a violent thug and have ANY political point of view. When we can’t trust the reporting, we tend to look for other sources. BBC – – Not Fit for Purpose.
August 4, 2024
Not everyone defending their family and community is a âviolent thugâ. We used to call themâ heroesâ. The current woke class views every previous generation as âfar rightâ, I am more than happy to be counted in their number.
August 4, 2024
I haven’t seen any footage of defending family/community yet. But plenty of intent to maim police officers and smash shops/offices and set fire to anything.
So much for peaceful protest.
August 4, 2024
You weren’t there, MT, nor was I. You saw the images you were supposed to see, of rioters you were expected to identify as ‘far-right’ (definitely not Antifa agent provocateurs, oh no). I didn’t waste my time with that.
August 4, 2024
Well you get rather selective footage and clearly such actions are wrong. But this Government and the last are responsible for the immigration levels and the blatant two tier policing they deliver.
The protest is against the appalling government we have suffered for circa 45 years. Even Thatcher made many errors.
August 4, 2024
Good grief!
Have a thought for those who NEED the train.
Would you really have reluctant and nervous drivers making long yet necessary trips by road?
To do away with rail is to conspire with 15 minute ghettos.
Just a short trip of 50 odd miles by car is now a major undertaking thanks to all the anti travel shenanigans.
August 4, 2024
Buses perhaps…….
August 4, 2024
Not great for long journeys, making connections etc.
YesâŠbuses and coaches are great and cheaper than trains.
But they do expose one to the vagaries of our roads.
They too are subject to traffic jams, diversions and elephant traps put in place to discourage driving.
August 4, 2024
Well they can still get a train, coach, taxi, lift or bus but they should surely pay the full un-subsidised costs. Why should drivers subsidise them> Driver-less taxis coming in the not too distant future.
So Starmer is still pouring petrol on the fire another idiotic speech. He complains of far right Nazi (National Socialists actually) salutes and says if you target people for the colour of their skin or their religion you are “far right”. But the protesters are not, in general, doing this at all. They voted four times (at least) for far lower immigration levels and the various governments promised this but totally ignored them – upping it to over 1 million PA, 700K net under Cameron, May Boris and Sunak and mainly it was legal immigration.
The protest is against this serial betrayal by government not the individual migrants. Free hotels heated for illegal migrants but no winter fuel for poor pensioners from Starmer.
As tp targeting people for the colour of their skin this is mainly a left wing activity. I do not give a dam about people’s skin colour. This is mainly exista left wing agenda with the appalling diversity/rather than merit agenda. Diversity appointments are clearly racist – what about all those rejected “useless white men” would be RAF pilots for example.
How is that teacher from Batley getting on? Not much on that from his MP Kim Michele Leadbeater MBE or Starmer on that or similar illegality? Humza Yousaf also on about far right Nazis (National Socialists) too. Thank goodness this man has resigned and his party decimated.
The the rather depressing but surely right – Starmerâs one-party state | David Starkey Spiked.
August 4, 2024
“If you want an economy to grow faster you need to create transport systems that allow people and goods to get about easily and at sensible cost.”
Indeed you also need lower taxes, far less government, cheap reliable energy, easy hire and fire, sufficient housing for the population, highly skilled, positive only immigration & at sensible levels, far less red tape… so Starmer is 180 degrees out on every issue (other than relaxed planning).
August 4, 2024
I’ve just had my car renewal premium, double last year for no apparent reason. Same car, no claims etc. I rang the insurance company and the agent told me average repair costs had soared due to the writing of of EVs involved in accidents. Maybe they should be targeted as I drive a conventional ICE car.
Why should I subsidies the virtue signalling minority.
August 4, 2024
Well you get rather selective footage and clearly such actions are wrong. But this Government and the last are responsible for the immigration levels and the blatant two tier policing they deliver.
The protest is against the appalling government we have suffered for circa 45 years. Even Thatcher made many errors.
August 4, 2024
Exactly, also if you get points for doing say 23 in a 20 zone! Even a wing mirror can be ÂŁ1000 now it used to be about ÂŁ10 on a car from 1970.
August 5, 2024
Use the comparison sites and shop around. My car insurance went up by ÂŁ18; still annoying but within the bounds of acceptability.
August 5, 2024
Mine up 30% no change in circumstances, given same reason as you.
If electric cars are the problem why not just charge those drivers/owners a higher fee ?
August 4, 2024
He needs to speak to Baerbok, she urges turns of 360 degrees! But then she shares the attitude and logic of Mr Cold of these comments on this blog.
August 4, 2024
Poor Mr P âŠheâd be really dizzy and right back to where he started!
Youâd think that a gymnast might understand all that?
August 4, 2024
Two Tier Starmer and chums not using the train. He slated Snake Sunak for private flight journeys.
Two tier Starmer flew to the Euro final rather than railway tunnel! Prince William also in attendance! Separate journeys, again, was it necessary for both? William has a role Two Keir just likes football, that seems an abuse of position to me. Especially if Two Tier Starmer thinks there is a climate emergency!
Healy, Lammy and Starmer went by separate private jets to the same conference! Were these journeys necessary at all? Why all three and not one represent the country at the same meeting, how many staff also had to attend for each. But we are forced not to use our cars, particularly London!
The age of the railway is dead for private citizens, it could have a role for freight. What about HS2? It does not reach Birmingham and does not reach London, it cost over ÂŁ130 billion!! One railway journey that was to save 30 minutes! Tory party wasting our taxes at its best.
August 4, 2024
So Sir Two Tier Kierâs Moronic âletâs pour petrol on the fireâ speech has had exactly the effect that I said it would have. What did idiot Starmer expect? Who wrote this speech? Was it Starmer himself?
Warm hotels and spending money for illegal migrant arrivals but cancelled winter fuel benefits for often very poor pensioners who paid in all their lives.
2 Tier Kier simply cannot read the room. The two tier agenda was also pushed by 14 years of Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak⊠but Kier has taken it to new heights.
August 4, 2024
You can only police with consent Kier, not by idiotically branding everyone with legitimate concerns far right in your moronic speech – and by pushing your 2 Tier Policing agenda.
August 4, 2024
Has he cancelled his holiday yet? Will it make matters even worse if he does, probably unless he get a new speech writer who does not pour petrol on the fire he has created.
August 4, 2024
The worse the better for the agenda I imagine!
Stoke up violence and hatred ( whoopsâŠsorryâŠHATE!)
The powers t b have had masses of practice with covid and blue and yellow.
Certain parties have now taken to armed street raids on fleeing Brits.
All is going according to plan.
A Labour MP even mentioned âbringing in the troopsâ.
August 4, 2024
To force integration of immigrants the Human Right Act and ECHR needs to be scrapped. DEI, ESG and S.172 Company Act needs to be scrapped along with the Equality terrorism Acts to force silence and compliance to accept foreign alien cultures and to rid us of our nation state, way of life and culture.
Change welfare claims to force immigrants not to be a burden on the taxpayer, pay their way or deport, as it is the case for UK workers in foreign countries. That includes housing, translation services, oral and in writing for public services.
Why does the Uni party think all these illegal criminals from France want to come here rather than the three or four safe EU countries they pass through? After all of the EU European is all the Uni party Europhile think it is why are they not staying in EU countries rather than our because we left!!
Stop forcing UK citizens to change our way of life for foreign cultures.
August 4, 2024
Apparently, or so I have heardâŠ
It is now WE who must integrate.
Well..it is only a very small step I suppose considering how very accommodating we have been.
August 4, 2024
Boat/dinghy appears a good way of transport to enrich yourself! We read today Rycroft in charge of Home Office gets a ÂŁ30,000 bonus! A record high for illegal Criminals entering our country, worst policing, worse prison records gets a massive pay rise. Cleverly was his boss, did he approve it? Rycroft at Select committee hearing when questioned by Loughton about illegal immigration was truly awful, clueless and came over as a complete dullard. ÂŁ180,000 plus ÂŁ30,000 bonus! JR, tell us how this could possibly happen.
August 5, 2024
The Friday night off wish did not last long did it !
Another U turn.
August 4, 2024
1. Create a fractured society with mass immigration
2. Visibly pander to the demands of immigrants. Ignore objections by the “native” population. Brand them racists for objecting.
3. Introduce two-tier policing. Immigrant/Left wing protests = kid gloves. “Native” non-woke protests = come down hard.
4. Stoke tensions by deliberately importing 100,000+ criminal migrants, overloading some communities and making taxpayers pay for it – whilst claiming “there’s no money.”
5. Wait for violence to kick off. When it does, “softly, softly” if the violence is carried out by “ethnic minorities” but come down hard if the white working class dare protest.
6. Use it as an excuse to increase surveillance and control.
It’s a deliberate strategy.
August 4, 2024
Under two tier kier anyone who opposes mass immigration is a far right nutter. It’s amazing that the majority of the electorate have been labelled enemies of the state by this privileged idiot.
August 4, 2024
In the eyes of PM Starmer and the BBC the number of people who are âFar Righrâ will lie somewhere between the 52% who voted for Brexit and the 80% of the electorate who didnât vote for the labour Party.
August 4, 2024
+1
August 4, 2024
It’s actually what we thought. Allowing Labour in finally reveals all the stupidities in plain sight of Joe Public. The Conservatives lied through their teeth about reducing immigration and much else, but this bunch won’t even do that. It’s a red rag to a bull, literally.
August 4, 2024
On Talk radio, this morning, a former police officer, said the police have said, that if certain people leave their weapons at the local mosque, they won’t be in trouble.
No mention of anyone else leaving theirs at the local church?
August 4, 2024
There was something very significant in Starmer’s speech reacting to the Southport child murder protests which hasn’t been widely commented on. He quite emphatically blamed the protesters twice for not being in ‘their own community’. In other words, as far as Labour is concerned, you have no right to go and protest anywhere else, just stay in the ‘community’ where you live, and protest there if you want to. Would that be a 15-minute community, I wonder? If not, perhaps it soon will be, and perhaps also his thinking is that it’ll be much easier to police.
August 4, 2024
You say Government prefers rail but of course local government prefers bicycles. Where I live theyâve spent millions taking away road space from cars and pavement space from pedestrians to create dedicated lanes for cyclists which some cyclists use whilst others still use the car lanes and other just use the pavement. The elaborate new traffic lights that come with the bike lane are, of course, ignored by them. Some bus stops now are âislandâ format positioned between the road and the bike lane, and that has to be crossed to get to the pavement – this means blind or partially sighted people can no longer use the buses. Why so much has been done for cyclists with nothing demanded in return is unclear – they donât pay road tax or insurance, even for e-bikes, and are by far the most aggressive and irresponsible road users out there.
August 4, 2024
Less than 1% of mileage is done by cyclists and much of this is hobby cycling (people going no where just round in circles for fun). So why give so much of the road to 1% of the traffic and the 1% that is not even paying for the roads? The government also still claims that walking and cycling cause no C02 direct and indirect which is complete drivel and lies. It is fuelled by human food which need loads of fossil fuels to grow, harvest, process, package, butcher, transport cook… can even be worse than a car and certainly a full car. Five people cycling is far worse than a full car in CO2 terms.
August 4, 2024
Does anyone (other than a few politicians & idiots in government) really think five people cycling say 50 miles & then needing showers and clean clothing on arrival and rerun is preferable to a small full car?
August 4, 2024
I imagine that the bike thing is a way of gently levering us into 15 min zones.
Like electric cars they are useless for pre covid ways of life.
They were fine for cycling into the village or to work at the egg packing station.
But not obviously for a shirt clad day in the office 15 miles away.
( Actually my grandfather who was a printer DID cycle daily from Tring to Kings Langley)
But people and roads have changed.
BasicallyâŠour free movement is not required!
August 4, 2024
If the cyclist is paying council tax, he is paying for the roads just as much as a motorist. After all, you blame the council for that pothole, not DVLA.
August 4, 2024
Uh ? What are you on about ? Since when did cyclists pay the road fund license ? Even e-bikes which are equivalent to motorbikes don’t pay it.
August 4, 2024
Correct!
August 4, 2024
A lot of traffic lights have sensors in the road to detect the presence of vehicles. Though they are sensitive enough to pick up cycles, quite often they are not adjusted well enough. This trains cyclists to ignore traffic lights because they don’t work. After all, if the traffic lights aren’t intended for cyclists, why should they stop for them?
August 5, 2024
D A
Is this a really serious comment, seems like a rather single minded thought process.
Perhaps the lights were monitoring a greater traffic flow in another direction,not just your movement
August 4, 2024
What you write is obvious common sense. It is a sign of the times that you feel the need to do so. Yet with another lot of chumps in charge it is necessary to do so. But are the said chumps listening? Probably not as they despatch yet more industries that support road transport into terminal decline.
August 4, 2024
Indeed people and industries need efficient fairly uncongested road transport and cheap reliable energy. Government policy is for cutting road space & blocking road to further congest, to tax people off the roads and for expensive unreliable, intermittent energy – so what might go wrong I wonder? Yet labour say they want growth!
August 4, 2024
DA, +++, short and succinct, politely understated, and heavy with ominous portent, and the socialists in charge are oblivious to the obvious damage which is already being loosed on the land and the people.
August 4, 2024
Could not have put it better. Rail is a lost opportunity. Passengers are poorly and expensively served. Any trip over 100 miles would be better by air in terms of speed comfort and price. It is only government and its netf zero idiocy that gets in the way. Goods are an absolute lost opportunity. Just look at Amazon to understand how to solve a logistics problem.
You say it is impossible to go shopping by train. In the UK yes, but when I was in Spain I often took El Tren on the 45 minute, stop everywhere, journey to Valencia to take advantage of its market, sights , and Casa Montana, one of the best none tourist tapas bars you could imagine. All for about 7 euros return in clean comfort. Might be 10 euros today. Additionally plenty of free car parking at the station and cheap transport within Valencia.
I would not consider the same by train or car from where I now live to Birmingham. Same distance but a totally different experience, in transit and destination.
As for configuring our roads for growth, how about, on main motorways the separation of trucks from all other users. Put all other users on a two lane, each way overhead motorway, with service lane. Built on pylons down the centre of existing motorways. Most of it factory constructed, but get a japanese construction company to do the job. Apart from increasing the capacity of motorways there is a great safety bonus in such traffic separation. With the right architects it might also look beautiful and use little more land. Ideas to enjoy with your full english, in the knowledge that it will never happen in a UK bent on self destruction.
August 4, 2024
Well not really trips of just 100 miles as you have the travel to and from the airports and all the security scanning delays at airports plus you might well need to rent a car to finish the journey with even more delays. More like 200 miles plus.
August 4, 2024
You describe the UK way to organise such an event not a way that is market oriented. Example Royal Mail is a UK phenomena, Amazon is market oriented. It is not that what I suggest is unfit for purpose, it is that the UK is unfit to run anything. Tell me of anything government has a hand in that actually works.
August 4, 2024
Trains are just less efficient, more expensive and less convenient than cars for most practical journeys. This despite the large tax and subsidy rigging of trains V road. What is the real demand for trains if they paid taxes like road users and had no subsidies. Circa 1/2 to 1/4 of the current level perhaps even less as commuting declines and when we get driver less cars and taxis?
August 4, 2024
Far less flexible too and far more at risk from vandals, unions etc.
August 4, 2024
“Put all other users on a two lane, each way overhead motorway,”
Not possible. Take a look at some of our more complicated motorway junctions and you will see that they already have two and sometimes three tiers of carriageway.
August 4, 2024
So some civil engineers know how to do it.
August 4, 2024
All very sensible Sir John.
I can’t honestly see how we could now get more freight back on the railways because as you say, freight sidings or freight yards are required.
Wokingham’sfreight yard has a multistory car park on it. Bracknell’s has offices, and up until recently, a bus depot.
The old freight depot in Reading has a retail park on it.
It would make sense to move freight by rail overnight but sensible doesn’t seem to come into it.
There is no joined up thinking when it comes to getting freight and people from one place to another. We have often been told that the government was going to create an intigrated transport system where buses and trains run at times and to places that people want and at an affordable price but, we’re still waiting for it.
It’s all very well telling people to get on their bikes but, many can’t. As an elderly and disabled person, who looks silly in lycra and with a radio active fruit bowl on my head, I won’t be cycling anytime soon. You can’t do a shop on a bike or go on holiday with a bike and yet, local authorities throw millions at cycling. Is it because communist States love people to cycle?
August 4, 2024
As with everything the state now does all public policy is filtered through an authoritarian political prism. Transport policy is not merely about aiding efficient movement of peoples but about politicising that process with the aim at some point of monitoring, restricting and profiting from movement of people. Khan is doing exactly this in in London. Tory MPs past endorsed this authoritarian approach. They have no grounds for opposing it. They are Khan.
August 4, 2024
Transport policy is to severely restrict private car use. Everything should be seen in that light.
August 4, 2024
Despite the subsidies, trains are also expensive, 2 people wishing to go by train from Canterbury to St Andrews in Scotland would pay about ÂŁ500.
August 4, 2024
@David in Kent – That’s why MP’s fly
August 4, 2024
We live in a small, densely populated country where green space and open countryside are at a premium. The new Labour government is determined to further erode the green belt placed around our cities by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and it’s priority is to use the land for housing. Using land for more roads would be unpopular.
People do like the freedom that personal transport offers. But the railways are much more efficient for longer journeys and would be used much more, were it not for the endless strikes and high fares. The collapse of bulk manufacturing and coal mining in the last century made the freight network redundant and the sidings etc were sold off. Even the Royal Mail now uses the roads for the distribution of letters and parcels
The number of cars on our roads passed 40 million in 2020. There are probably enough of them now. Using the digital network for working from home is the future
August 4, 2024
A statement that “the railways are much more efficient for longer journeys” is not accurate. If you want to go from the centre of London to, say, the centre of Manchester for a business meeting then rail is more efficient.
However, if you don’t start your journey in central London and your final destination isn’t the centre of Manchester then rail almost certainly isn’t more efficient. And if there’s more than one of you travelling and you are planning to visit a number of other places (possibly a holiday) then rail travel is far inferior and far more expensive.
August 4, 2024
How can you add houses without also adding roads? Are these householders going to be permanently âlocked downâ? In which case why not just use prisons as we always did?
AI is crashing already. Computer can do 2 things, monitor and super speed everything. AI has already reached the point where it has âgone madâ – it will cause itself to âloopâ in ever decreasing circles. The geniuses who invented and developed the computer industry discussed âself-programming machinesâ extensively. It was they who coined the phrase Artificial Intelligence. They decided it would not work. Thus my relation who was part of that âwhite heat of technologyâ era called it AS (artificial stupidity). The modern know-it-alls only learn the hard and expensive way, possibly because they profit.
If you want hairdressers to âwork from homeâ then their clients will have to travel.
There is no means of replacing cars powered by ICE.
August 4, 2024
I love travelling by train and spent a Summer inter railing which provided some of the best times of my life.
However with a family or to get to a place that isn’t in a location served by a train train travel is impractical (as can be air without car hire or expensive transfers).
Cars are the only means of going point to point without incurring excess costs and moving around when you get there.
August 4, 2024
Some stats might be very revealing:
Out of 40m how many are used 5-7 days per week?
used 3-4 days per week?
used 1-2 days per week?
Hardly ever used ?
What average (return) journey mileage per day?
used 5-7 days per week?
used 3-4 days per week?
used 1-2 days per week?
What annual cost, MOT, maintenance/servicing, road tax, fuel (lets ignore Dep’n).
used 5-7 days per week?
used 3-4 days per week?
used 1-2 days per week?
My guess is that a very large number are used for small convenience trips, but a significant number are quite heavy mileage used regularly.
Taxation ‘ought’ to take these factors into account.
August 4, 2024
ooops I forgot Insurance!
August 4, 2024
“It is not going to be practical to go shopping by train.” A rather sweeping statement. As it happens I am five minutes walk from a big Tesco and the same five minutes walk from the local train station. By choice I no longer have a car as with the few long journeys I make it was not economically viable. But I can certainly do most of my shopping by foot or train to the next big town. And of course these days there are the likes of Amazon for things that are too big for the train.
I do lots of walks around London. It is very easy to use the train and bus which takes me exactly where I need to be with the excellent London transport services. Yes, harder if I want to do a walk in the middle of nowhere but not impossible.
The trains have potential and should not be lightly dismissed.
August 4, 2024
They have their place but it depend where you live. But road users are taxes and rail user subsidised. One of the main pains of public transport is where to you store you shopping or luggage or tools as you travel. You have to carry it all with you all day. You cannot leave it in the boot. You cannot drop the kids at school on route, you cannot travel at the times you want, you cannot decide to work late and come home a midnight, you cannot race to hospital at 3 AM if needed.
The Amazon (or Tesco) deliveries you refer too are needless to say not delivered by trains but by road. Train can be efficient if you have 100 people all going from A to B at the same time. But in the real world this is rarely the case. Even then the return journey is usually almost empty.
August 4, 2024
Ever gone shopping by train for a week’s food supply for a family of 4?
August 4, 2024
You are very much in the minority.
August 4, 2024
Creating policy for the minority like you Dave is how the left operates.
I am pleased for you but your situation is the exception not the norm.
August 4, 2024
Best Estate Agency house sale promotion ‘ 5 minute walk from Tesco’.
August 4, 2024
@davews – very London centric view. An area that at just 15% of the UK population it receives a disproportionate amount of all UK Taxes in subsidies. The London Mayor is now demanding an extra ÂŁ500 million for TfL from national taxes. He is also demanding from the National Taxpayer gives him ÂŁ25billion extra to make up the shortfall in his uncosted promises made to get elected.
Other parts of the country don’t even see a bus let alone a train
August 4, 2024
â âIt is not going to be practical to go shopping by train.â A rather sweeping statement.â
Indeed. Morrisons is directly opposite Wimbledon station. Lidl and Asda are close to Clapham Junction. Just a couple of examples. If you are within walking distance of a station then shopping by train can be practical.
Buses go to the bigger supermarkets too. I had to go to Putney Vale cemetery and I did not want to drive there. It is just behind the big ASDA on the A3. Various buses stop there. Buses also stop at the big Tesco on the A3.
Aside from groceries, there is more variety on offer in Central London, but I would not choose to drive in and park up to shop in the West End. I donât even like the local car parks where you have to decide in advance how long you plan to stay and pay for it. Paying on the way out seems to be a thing of the past now. I donât particularly like driving around in circles on various levels to find a space either. Shopping malls with plenty of parking at ground level suit me better.
August 4, 2024
As I said in an earlier blog, trains were a 19th century solution for getting people from A to B. Now, because of changes in the structure of the family, working and social lives, people want to get from A to F, or A to Q. If you use a train that often means going from A to B before you can get another train to go from B to F or Q. And then you need transport at the end to complete your journey.
The only mass transit which was still A to B was the daily commute, but the Government blew that funding model up with the Covid Tyranny.
The Government is still squandering ÂŁ80 billion on a pointless HS train line from Not-Quite-Birmingham to Nearly-London. It will carry very few passengers and will NEVER make a profit. It should have been completely scrapped and the money spent upgrading the rail network for freight transport and the necessary distribution hubs/goods yards.
That’s the only viable future for the rail network and it would get many HGVs off the roads making them more efficient for drivers who are not going to use the trains because it is simply impractical for them..
August 4, 2024
If trains are to be an efficient alternative means of transport, then you either need more track and trains or a fully integrated bus service which links them to start or end destinations.
We do not have the above because Beeching decided it was too expensive, as did many Bus companies, supermarkets and other stores also decided out of town shopping was better at serving the public with larger stores and free parking.
Complicated fare structures and limited travel times with designated train times are complicated and expensive, so much easier to just jump in the car
August 4, 2024
Beeching was invited to address the growing cost of the national train ‘service’, after more than a decade of zero investment in modern methods and WW2 rail rundown.
It was Government policy to close supposed loss making minor lines, and certain individuals with road building connections seized the golden opportunity to cash in!
August 4, 2024
MT
Another nail in the coffin of Public Ownership, lack of investment made, inefficient Government/management planning
Lessons of past decades learnât, probably not !
Thus if not careful Government will repeat the same mistakes again
August 4, 2024
Welcome to the Lifelogic diary. Boring!
August 4, 2024
Sir John, the authorities controlling our lives have an answer for your shopping, education/schools, entertainment access issues.
They simply tell you to go on line.
The demand for travel and hence demand for personal transport is being progressed with ever more vigour.
The ‘authorities’ want to stop individual choice from all things, so allowing roads to become unavailable (LTNs) or just failing to repair them suits the agenda perfectly.
In my part of the world the authorities have adopted a very simple strategy to get cars off the road. They have allowed the hedges to grow out untrimmed thus occupy the road and block out all road signs so no one can see where they are going.
August 4, 2024
Recent governments were wrong to follow the fashion (amongst a minority) for electric cars and more public transport.
Instead they should have found out why so many people are travelling and found ways of reducing travel. They should have:
1. Drastically reduced immigration
2. Used job centres to help people work closer to where they live
3. Disincentivised the trend to recieve state/formal education far from home
4. Where people continued to travel, to provide an integrated travel network with the use of automated trains and road vehicles (regardless of the fuel they used)
August 4, 2024
Sir John
Surely the anti-car faction is just lazy mismanagement? Council and government, has got involved in ideological social engineering as opposed to serving their communities.
If you are building homes, attracting enterprise and industry and your road infrastructure is stuck in the last century you as the servant of the people have failed at the first hurdle. Punishing people for your own failings doesnât solve anything, it is regressive and compounds the situation.
Local Councils, Country and so on are taking their lead from the top. We have a crappy bunch inhabiting âourâ parliament. A Parliament that has become protected by ideological gangâs that in all definitions of democracy fight against the people and serve themselves.
August 4, 2024
+1
August 4, 2024
Let’s not forget pre Beeching we had the perfect system for moving goods by rail and the yards in which to unload the wagons for local deliveries.
While I condemn the violence in our cities during this last week, I can’t help but feel it is a reaction to our Governments, this one and the last one, ignoring the concerns of ordinary people. I suspect for every thug on the streets, there are 50 people who are not on the streets who are equally concerned about immigration.
Today our Governments are trying to mess up the roads as Beeching, supported by the Gov ernment of the day, messed up the railways.
August 4, 2024
We need to have a complete rethink on future land transport. We should be looking at what the situation is going to be after 2040, because that is how long planning any massive change will take.
The starting point has to be, that with zero emission vehicles, there is no longer any reason why public transport systems for medium and long distance journeys, particularly trains, are favoured over personal vehicles. This applies especially to cars, for all the reasons our host has mentioned above.
The left, including the quasi-communist green extremists and the anti-car lobby in the Civil Service can no longer make a credible case against personal mobility.
If office working is to continue to require your presence at your desk for most days a week, there is no alternative to public transport for short distance commuting. But is that even necessary or realistic ? I suspect it won’t be. Maybe a local network of small, efficient serviced offices will spring up allowing workers to go into an office rather than have the distractions of working at home, but without wasting hours commuting ?
Done properly, that could cost less than expensive office space in a huge building in the centre of a city.
Video conferencing is still a bit clunky, and needs forward planning, but that will indoubtedly change. Important social interaction with other people could continue, it’s just that the person at the next desk might be working for a different company in a completely different industry.
There are a huge number of alternatives to the current transport system but it appears that nobody is engaging in the necessary blue-sky thinking. Everyone would benefit from a reduction in commuting and business travel.
August 4, 2024
ActuallyâŠ
As ever it all comes down toâŠ
Too many people and the overweening ambitions of governments.
August 4, 2024
You describe the UK way to organise such an event not a way that is market oriented. Example Royal Mail is a UK phenomena, Amazon is market oriented. It is not that what I suggest is unfit for purpose, it is that the UK is unfit to run anything. Tell me of anything government has a hand in that actually works.
August 4, 2024
We are seeing disgraceful sc
August 4, 2024
Make no mistake. The drive towards Net Zero requires de-growth except for state employment, control and high, wasteful spending justifying high taxation. Although expensive and inefficient, rail is needed as Net Zero is planned to eradicate private transport to restrict all travel. The then (Conservative) transport minister in 2021, Trudy Harrison, MP said :
âOwning a car is outdated â20th-century thinkingâ and we must move to âshared mobilityâ to cut carbon emissionsâ.
Ending private transport, except for an elite, is part of the plan to halve our energy use despite massive increases in population. Hence the command from above to replace our ices with expensive, impractical and dangerous evs.Note that 80% of our local grids can only support 1 in 7 houses with an ev. This is because they only have the capacity to handle 1 â 2KW per household continuously according to written evidence given to a HoC Select Committee by an engineer.
August 4, 2024
We are seeing disgraceful scenes of violence on our screens which under no circumstances can be justified in any civilised societies. Who is ultimately responsible, though ?
It has to be the politicians of the three major parties who have ignored the wishes of the settled community. They have failed to implement Brexit properly and have allowed both legal or illegal immigration to spiral out of control.
Everyone knows why our public services and finances are deteriorating : the root cause is the population explosion. Our host has frequently pointed out the huge cost of assimilating more than half a million net arrivals in a year, but the numbers have continued to spiral out of control. Other than the very visible arrival of small boats on our beaches, we have yet to see the full effect of the huge numbers of legal migrants who have been allowed in by the last Conservative administration.
We can see no end to this problem and the frustration among voters is obvious. First, many turned to the Conservatives but seeing that they failed miserably, 4m supported Reform at the last election. The result, was a landslide for Starmer on less recorded votes than even Corbyn achieved !
So far Starmer has failed to address the frustration that has cause the riots and much, much wider discontent across the country which is palpable, but is from people such as myself who would never consider taking violent action. Yet, even the newspapers are stifling debate, switching off their comments sections on any subject related to immigration or the scenes we have seen in the last week.
I haven’t even mentioned the decisions of the new government that will undoubtedly lead to a substantial increase in taxes. Reeves is going to come a cropper very quicky if there is any chance of the OBR and B of E doing their jobs properly. I am not at all hopeful of that !
There has to be some outlet for people to make their feelings known but most of all, they have to see their government taking action to addressing their concerns. That is visibly not happening, and I fear the way this will develop over the next six months.
August 4, 2024
Rail is expensive because it is 19th century engineering â steel wheels on a steel track. It is also extremely inflexible and cannot provide the door-to-door service. Most of the rail network, except possibly for busy commuter routes into and between major cities, needs to be replaced by a tarmac road along which only licenced private coaches can operate. This will provide transport which is not only cheaper but far more flexible and reliable.
August 4, 2024
A railway track, especially single line, is very narrow for conversion to a road. Disused railway lines do make good cycle tracks though – gentle inclines and usually bridges where they cross roads.
August 4, 2024
I am surprised all cities and big towns (which are large enough to have traffic congestion problems) do not have big car parks at the suburbs which would keep the visiting traffic out the city / town centres. This would alleviate the internal congestion a lot and make internal commercial and residential transport much faster. The model would be something like Gatwick Airport where parking overflow is allocated to an outdoor space at the perimeter which is within walking distance of the airport itself thus alleviating congestion.
The suggested visitor car parks should also be within walking distance of the towns / cities too. But there should also be regular (every 10 mins), well administered, free shuttle buses taking visitors to the city centre (like they do in Las Vegas from the suburbs to the Strip). I am sure we could aim for synthetic fuels and make road transport a lot more efficient than it currently is and also a lot more efficient than the Governmentsâ rail preference which is flawed for so many reasons.
August 4, 2024
Dear Sir John,
The new Government’s plan, new to me, is to replicate Transport for London round the country. This sounds alarm bells. It makes the monopoly local authorities the operators of monopoly bus services (and maybe monopoly trams/ metro trains) on LA-owned monopoly road infrastructure. At the same time LA’s will remain the regulators of these very services (plus taxis) and regulators of who can use what roads when, if at all, and what they must pay for the privilege. What could go wrong?
There is every reason to expect LA’s not merely to be as ineffective as central government at these tasks but also to abuse their monopoly powers to shore up the financial deficits that ensue, for instance by forcing more residents on to their services. And where is the accountability? To local councillors and electors according to ministers. Well, that may work for political decisions, such as the planning powers that are, by contrast, now being delocalised. It is nugatory for holding LAs to account for operational and business matters.
Local newspapers and broadcasters are now, with few exceptions, pathetically weak. Council meetings and committees are not televised, nor are their proceedings reported like Hansard. And if one thinks that UK civil servants have too much power over national politicians, that is nothing to the power of LA officials over councils.
August 4, 2024
How about setting out your thoughts on how to end mass immigration? Surely this is a more important issue for the immediate future than better transport?
Reply I have done that many times.Stop issuing so many visas!
Raise income requirements, reduce number of work categories qualifying, disallow family with students etc.
August 4, 2024
reply to reply…Disallow students first, hanger-on family drops accordingly. Insist on work offers in writing else visa refusal.
Just do it!
August 4, 2024
I see no change in the next five years ….maybe a few more incidents of unruly conduct
August 4, 2024
Setting up stations in rural areas would have been very welcome (Boris put this on the agenda I believe). Rural areas have been neglected for transport for many years and it needed attention which I thought we might get, same as animal reforms put in place. Not to be as Boris was thrown out (he has his bad points but those were two of his good points) and the new one has been a disaster culminating with the loss of power. The new lot have cancelled the rural element so are no better than the last lot. We need more MPs from the rural areas being elected. Please take on board Tory Party people when asking people to stand next time. I know you are not representing the Tories now but they must read your blog if they have any sense left in them.
August 4, 2024
There is a great deal of sense in JR’s summary. I used to think we might have a mixed transport economy, rail for long distances, free or extremely cheap cars/vans for short distances, but of course the inflexible structure of rail (platforms, steps, bridges, exit passages) makes managing luggage a problem, and now I note the trains are cutting down luggage space, as if in imitation of plane cabins, so that anyone getting on halfway on a major line will find no room for their luggage at all.
EVs, with their short travelling range and unaffordability, are pretty useless to all except the extremely leisured and wealthy, and evidently intended to make rail travel seem more attractive, or indeed to nudge the nation into not travelling anywhere at all.
That these commonsense matters were generally glossed over by the previous government and raised by very few (Sir JR being an honourable exception) is one more reason why the Tories will struggle to be re-elected, ever again.
August 4, 2024
Better transport ….I’d settle for less pot-holes and the freedom to travel anywhere in the UK without having to pay a toll, a fee or a charge
August 4, 2024
Has Mr Redwood ever been labelled ‘far right’ by the usual lowlife progressive sect who appear to despise all things British and all things indigenous? I ask this simple question to expose the vileness of this Stalinist and criminal slander when applied to honorable people whose opinion just happens to differ from the dominant narrative
I note disturbing noises coming from Socialist Starmer regarding facial recognition, ID cards etc etc. Socialists will never allow a crisis like this to pass without attempting to hijack it for authoritarian ends
Rayner said some weeks ago that every region would have to take a ‘fair share’ of migrants. Talk about pouring petrol upon a out of control blaze
Tory party leaders since 2010 and their endorsement of Blair’s hate-filled and nasty diversity agenda are directly responsible for the anarchy we now see all around us.
August 4, 2024
I occasionally like to update the EU enthusiasts on what is actually happening in the EU because they seem to have no clue or interest. The nationalised train service in Germany is now much worse than in UK – cancellations, delays, strikes – quite surprising eh ? .
August 5, 2024
Yes …. my German friend likes to regale me with stories about the appalling German railways since I told her the Brits generally think they are run better than ours are. She says booking a train journey and expecting to arrive when you want in Germany is the triumph of hope over experience.
August 4, 2024
Could driverless trains operate long distance for freight on our train lines out of normal working hours 11pm to 5am? From port to port, and then who would offload them? How would competitors get involved to keep prices low and competitive, what happens when the weather is bad, leaves are on the line, strike action at the rail heads? How many times have you heard since the 1980s about goods being held up for next day deliveries nationwide? Rarely! If they are stopped now itâs usually due to snow and Highways England not being fast enough to clear major motorways even when snow is predicted, or a motorway smash where traffic now comes to a halt for five hours because there are no hard shoulders traffic behind them with sufficient notice can re-route but you canât reroute a train.
Even the Royal Mail came off the rail network as it was too costly and caused problems. It puts too much power in the hands of too few people to control the flow of goods and weâre so used to fantastic transport services we completely take it for granted.