Blueprint to bring Midlands public transport into the 21st Century backed by local Euro-MP
September 16, 2008 1:22 PM
Originally published by Liz Lynne
Originally published by Liz Lynne
A transport plan approved by the LibDem conference in Bournemouth today
would transform bus and rail services in the West Midlands region, claims
local Euro MP Liz Lynne.
Welcoming the Fast Track Britain policy package, the West Midlands MEP
said a step change to investment in public transport, better access to
travel and pro-active passenger representation were essential steps
forward.
Liz Lynne said:
"We must offer people a real alternative to cars, and over medium
distances planes, which do so much damage to the environment. It is not
just the congestion argument of course, the top priority has to be to end
our dependence on oil - fuel prices are likely to go on rising very fast.
Many commuters who drive to work in the West Midlands lose two or more
hours of their life every day and hundreds of pounds every month from
their budgets. We can't go on like this and the Liberal Democrats have had
the courage to put forward a far reaching plan to tackle it.
'When Labour came into power in 1997, John Prescott said an awful lot of
exciting things about how he was going to transform public transport.
Tragically, most of his words never translated into action.
'We still only have one Metro line, approved by the previous government.
We still have many rail routes into Birmingham woefully starved of
investment, in some cases using Victorian signalling. The Cross City line
is pretty good, but the Shrewsbury line is always a Cinderella.
'The West Coast 'upgrade' is years late, cost billions but is only really
an interim improvement. When I first became an MEP in 1999 there were
plans for a Eurostar from Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Rugby via the
Tunnel to Brussels, which of course never materialised. The trains were
built, the service even appeared in the timetable, but it never ran!
'Like so many of the Government's transport plans it just fell by the
wayside. When they do happen, they mostly involve London, like the new
Eurostar from St Pancras and the £16 billion CrossRail. What they never
seem to realise is that services in the regions could be transformed for a
fraction of that kind of money.
'We need a new High Speed Line with Birimingham plugged into it to
transform inter-city travel. Our Fast Track Britain plan will make that a
priority - and we can afford it. The green arguments are so powerful, we
can't afford not to get on with it.
'At the other end of the scale we also need to transform the way bus
services are organised, with integrated ticketing and better planning,
especially in counties outside the Centro area. In rural areas bus services are sporadic and in most cases badly planned, and most passengers are those who simply cannot use cars at
all.
'Buses and trains need to be accessible for all, and to provide a decent
service for the millions of people who cannot drive or do not have 24 hour
access to their own car - that's more than half the population.
'Of course people should have the freedom to choose what mode transport
they want, and cars will be hard to replace, especially in rural areas.
But when a genuine choice is provided they should also be informed what
environmental impact this has and be charged accordingly for it.'
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