What can technology do to reduce rail’s inherent disadvantages?
Stuck in Traffic
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The bumper-to-bumper commuter traffic in the greater London area is among the worst in Europe. With chronic underinvestment in infrastructure since the second world war, Britain today is under-roaded by a factor of at least two compared with road use in other industrial countries. How Britain deals with its coming explosion in congestion over the next decade or so could have important implications for gridlock globally.
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Listen to the podcast: Cost of congestion
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 Approx. 13 mins |
Stephen Glaister CBE, professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College in London, outlines the options available for curbing congestion.
Listen to the podcast, click here.
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Total Posts: 3 - Pages (1): [1]
what kind of rail do we talk about here? commuter trains, fast train that compete with aeroplane trips?
I believe that if efforts were made to develop commuter trains to an acceptable standard rather than treating people like cattle (talking from Paris point of view), many people would use the train and thus it could be a major contribution to environment, to making people travel time less stressful and more useful and to making train even more economically (not financially, this is not the point) viable.
Infrastructure has been a key in our countries' economic development and it seem that with our ever-growing non discretionnary part of public budgets, thanks to entitlments and bitter theoretical (verging on dogmatic) fights between government vs market, we are not addressing the core issue anymore: how to we keep on developing our infrastructures to maintain our economic edge?
I believe that if efforts were made to develop commuter trains to an acceptable standard rather than treating people like cattle (talking from Paris point of view), many people would use the train and thus it could be a major contribution to environment, to making people travel time less stressful and more useful and to making train even more economically (not financially, this is not the point) viable.
Infrastructure has been a key in our countries' economic development and it seem that with our ever-growing non discretionnary part of public budgets, thanks to entitlments and bitter theoretical (verging on dogmatic) fights between government vs market, we are not addressing the core issue anymore: how to we keep on developing our infrastructures to maintain our economic edge?
Rail needs to return to the preferred long-distance method of travel, probably by upping the green taxes on short-haul flights.
The structural problems in rail freight need to be solved, and then a combination of taxes and incentives should be utilised to get bulk freight onto rail - including the burgeoning overnight parcel distribution business.
Rail infrastructure needs substantial investment to enable East-West cross-country travel to be as available as North-South (and radially from London)is now. Inter-connectors have to be developed at the same time so that passengers can accomplish whole journeys by public transport in acceptable and timely ways.
I recently attempted to travel from Bangor in North Wales to Bodmin in Cornwall on a Sunday by train. The only journey possible left four hours earlier than I wanted to travel, and took three changes and nine hours to accomplish. My solution was a car journey to Manchester, a flight to Newquay, and a further car journey. The flight, whilst not cheap, was cheaper than rail.
The structural problems in rail freight need to be solved, and then a combination of taxes and incentives should be utilised to get bulk freight onto rail - including the burgeoning overnight parcel distribution business.
Rail infrastructure needs substantial investment to enable East-West cross-country travel to be as available as North-South (and radially from London)is now. Inter-connectors have to be developed at the same time so that passengers can accomplish whole journeys by public transport in acceptable and timely ways.
I recently attempted to travel from Bangor in North Wales to Bodmin in Cornwall on a Sunday by train. The only journey possible left four hours earlier than I wanted to travel, and took three changes and nine hours to accomplish. My solution was a car journey to Manchester, a flight to Newquay, and a further car journey. The flight, whilst not cheap, was cheaper than rail.
Total Posts: 3 - Pages (1): [1]