corradoboy

With most political parties obsessed with green, environmental, CC, AGW and other ecomentalist issues, and most jumping to the same conclusion that we should all be using buses, trams and trains instead of our lovely, comfy personal cars, what do YOU want ? I have a lot of doubts about public transport. Personally, I hate it and would choose to walk if it were a viable option instead of suffering much of the loathsome general public of the UK. I always wonder about the justification of that 40' long, 10 tonne bendy-bus passing my house with one lonely, miserable pensioner onboard, whilst it gulps down 6mpg of diesel. Obviously, they are usually fully laden between 8-9am, and 5-6pm, but outside those few hours I see them mostly empty, clogging up the roads and belching fumes. They aren't even cost effective in my experience ! When I needed to get from Whitby to Staithes in North Yorkshire after a brisk coastal walk, it cost my partner and I £9 to travel the meagre 10 miles. Even my gas-guzzling Scooby at the time would have only needed about £1.50 of fuel to do the same journey, in comfort, (very) quickly and MUCH more enjoyably, so it was a waste of my time and money, and was no benefit to my life whatsoever.

So, do YOU actually WANT to use public transport ?

old man ham

Who cares ive got a scooby!!!!!!!.

Gordo

I want more and better public transport as it will free the roads up for me

David_Dickson

I want more public transport. I want it to be useful and affordable.

That way more people will use it, leaving more room for me to drive my car on uncongested roads.

David_Dickson

I want more public transport. I want it to be useful and affordable.

That way more people will use it, leaving more room for me to drive my car on uncongested roads.

Clarebabes

Public transport is OK if it goes where you want it too. Blimey, for me to do the same journey to work in half an hour in a car, would take over an hour by bus.

I think the trains should be less expensive for long journeys. How can it cost more to go by train than to fly? Sort that out greens!

Maz

iTrader: (34)

They'd be screwed if we all abandoned our cars and jumped on public transport. Aside from the loss in revenue the transport system would never be able to cope. All this bull about public transport and saving the environment is just lip service from our imperial leaders. Infact you can tell when a politician is lying......their lips are moving!

MattW

I commute on the train every week as it is quicker and cheaper than roads, Swindon to canary Wharf in under 2 hours at 700 a month. Would like it to be cheaper and quicker of course!

Jimbob

iTrader: (13)

We need to put the rail network back to where it was, and then bring prices to near free. Then there would be no need for cars to go to work, unless needed. And if cities like london had a monorail network as well as the trains and busses, who would need a car?

But if we are to get people out of cars to go to work, then rail is the way forward. Drive to railway station. Get train to city, monorail/tube/bus to work.

Also the rail network needs to be 3 part and never mixing, high speed distance trains, lower speed local trains and heavy freight trains.

Jimbob

iTrader: (13)

We need to put the rail network back to where it was, and then bring prices to near free. Then there would be no need for cars to go to work, unless needed. And if cities like london had a monorail network as well as the trains and busses, who would need a car?

But if we are to get people out of cars to go to work, then rail is the way forward. Drive to railway station. Get train to city, monorail/tube/bus to work.

Also the rail network needs to be 3 part and never mixing, high speed distance trains, lower speed local trains and heavy freight trains.

YoungY25

iTrader: (5)

I use public transport (train) to get to my work and i find the train pretty reliable.
I think most peoples complaint is that its so bloody expensive! Although running an Impreza is more..........lol
I kid you not, to get from my house to my day job, which is about 6 miles, it would cost me over £7 (£35 a week!) a day if i used the bus and train.
I live about 2 miles from the train station, and its about 4 or 5 miles from the station to Prestwick airport. It costs me £2.30 ONE WAY, to get from my house to the station on the bus, and only £1.80 RETURN from the station to the airport on the train.

What i do is drive to the train station, park the car for free, and then get the train to the airport.
Cost per week?...........................£10

So, to sum up,

Train = Good
Bus = Bad!!!

Adrian F

As every journey on public transport is part subsidised by us through taxation the cheaper it is the more tax we will have to pay do people want to do that?

the more people using public transport the more subsidy needed therefore again we have to pay more tax!

and then we will have to employ more civil servants to manage all this extra tax's they have to spend!

and last in the 50's we had a integrated public transport scheme with all the train lines and loads of regular buses and people were use to using it not cars and most people lived close to where they worked or on a easy commuter route and shopped at the local shops (no lakeside etc) and yet these were the people who built the motorways and really started the car ownership we see today, why would people go back 50 years? are we going to shut all out of town centres and go back to small local shops with no choice of product? Give up jobs that aren't on a main commuter route?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

My vision: We need a better rail network. Underground system for cities outside of London.

Hubs that interconnect the two, along with airports and large out-of-city parking for those that live in the sticks where there is no public transport. All hubs will have a high speed link into the nearest main city centre (i.e 5-10mins, two or three stops max).

Buses; forget them in city centres, just have them in the outer suburbs serving villages and the rail/underground hubs.

All at favourable pricing; tickets usable on any public transport means to the intended destination. Buses will be flat fee regardless of distance; 50p per hop on and off, unless you have a pre paid card.

In reality: Will cost billions to implement, will probably take 30years at our rate of implementation (whereas the Spanish will have their state owned inter-europe high speed AVE rail link mostly done within 5 years ), be behind schendule, be over budget and not take you where you need to go at an overflated cost.

Leslie

If you live in a country location, you could be excused for asking "what is public transport?"

Les

NotoriousREV

I never actually use it but the public transport round here is very good. We have buses that run every few minutes to the major local shopping and employment areas, trains every half hour to the nearby cities, I can get from here to London Euston in 2 hours and 5 minutes and I'm within 30 mins of 2 international airports. Job done.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

In the sixties Hull city council built the largest council estate in Europe, intending to provide a mass transit system to the city centre....

Then oil prices trebled overnight and the plan was dropped.

dunx

P.S. One bus every two hours here and I can spit onto a railway line, and throw stones at cars on the M1 or M62. Slight exaggeration....

P.P.S Dave option three - don't care !

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

TBH, public transport in and around London is spot on, I'm not sure there is much more that can be done to improve ours, but we do seem spoilt

Jaybird-UK

I want to do the journey I want, when I want with the least amount of fuss.

I also want to carry crap in my boot for when I might need it

n8i

iTrader: (3)

hi

I'm from a location with nearly no public transport, now studying in a big city with a pretty well public transport network, every 10 mins arrives a tram or a bus - nearly perfect. Student ticket is around 40 Pounds per term == half a year!
Long distances are really expensive, short comparison:
Dresden > Stuttgart: by train ~65 Pound, by plane: ~25 quids
time spent on train: 6-7h, by plane: 1h
so guess what, I'll go by train - of course not :P

On my opinion public transport should get massively cheaper than it is at the moment.
Periodically transports shouldn't be done by truck, they should do that via rail and an environmental-friendly technology should enpower that. But German politicans care for their own interests (compare "you can rent me like a taxi" - heard from a British politican) - what a pitty...
Hope they get in gear soon :P (I like going by bus/train as you have no responsibilities like getting a ticket for being to fast, getting paperwork done etc.)

cheers
Nico

shooter007

green what's that like to think for myself dont take kindly to people who think they can tell me what to do /think who ever they think they are

Adrian F

FFS dont people who want cheaper puplic transport understand it cant be cheaper instead you will pay more tax and less for the ticket.

E.G. they put VAT up to 20% to fund reduced train fairs is that really what people want???

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Cut benefits; fund transport.

Simples.

BOB.T

Public Transport just isn't practical for where I live and it's not that rural! I don't really expect it to get better any time soon so I'd rather the powers that be stopped telling me to leave my car at home and stop trying to tax me out of it!

SirFozzalot

I can't get from home to work using public transport, it simply doesn't go that way. The nearest bus stop is 4 miles from my work! The closest train station is 4.4 miles!

Not really an option.

As said before though, if everyone got out of their cars and tried to get on public transport it wouldn't be able to cope.

I used to commute to East London by car and my friend used to go to the City by train. He would say that at 7.00am the trains were standing room only, these trains would be travelling beside roads that were full of cars! How exactly would all the car drivers fit on already overcrowded trains?

Diesel

I need a train journey to London from Cardiff to cost £100 less - happy to pay £40. Otherwise its £25 in Diesel and fire up the 530d... I mean really---£140!

D

GC8

If you want a grant to fund an efficient and reliable alternative to personal cars; you have to cinduct a study into the loss of fuel tax take to the state.

Sheffield has a brilliant but flawed tram system: its great but it misses most of the city and virtually all of the middle class suburbs that will happily leave their cars for a tram, but not a bus.

Theres n money available to extend it though, as this would cost too much in lost tax revenue (and this has happened in many other places - Id heard about it before it happened to Sheffield).

This demonstrates clearly where the 'truth' lies: doesnt it?

Diesel

If I want to go on a bus anywhere I need to quadruple the journey time. Is that a fail before you start?... Also to take the wife and kids too it will always be cheaper to drive...

Jeez - I mean - do they THINK about this shhht or just preach BS!!!

Clue: Make it practical and affordable - and that's just a start.

D (an 18 mile a day cycler as the rest just don't add up...)