My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News.
Highway jinks
The malaise that grips this government has reached its bony fingers into every corner of Westminster life. Last Thursday’s transport questions provided a good example.
For a start it was Hamlet without the prince. Or, to be more accurate, the Greek myths without Adonis. The transport secretary is Lord Adonis and he cannot be questioned in the Commons, so MPs were forced to deal with his minions. Increasingly, the senior ministers in this government are unelected and – worse – are not accountable to anyone who has been elected either.
Then there was the content of the answers. There is a consensus between all parties about the threat of global warming. And more thoughtful critics recognise that the car has taken over our towns and cities, forcing everyone of the road and affecting our quality of life.
So you might expect the government to be giving spending on public transport priority over road building.
Not a bit of it.
There were two questions involving transport in the East Midlands. One was about the railway line from Leicester through Coalville and Ashby de la Zouch to Burton upon Trent. People have been talking about returning passenger services to it for more than 20 years. Would the minister discuss the scheme with the local MP?
No, said the minister – who, fittingly for someone called Chris Mole, has so far been entirely hidden from public notice. It is “it is primarily a scheme of regional significance” so any funding must come from the region – not that anyone elected that either.
It was a different matter when it came to widening the A14. “The Government are committed to the three-lane widening in order to deliver the improved traffic flows more quickly to the A14 around Kettering,” said the Mole. “The planned improvements are based on the needs of Kettering in terms of growth and development.”
Mr Toad would have approved.
Don’t, incidentally, expect any better from the Tories. Theresa Villiers, their shadow transport secretary, complained of the government: “In their entire term of office they have built less than 20 miles of new motorway.”
If David Cameron tries to hug a husky after that he deserves to get bitten.
1 comment:
Do do some sums (or find someone who has done them). How many people would use that reinstated railway line? How many cars would thus not be used for the same journey? On the roads, how many cars do the same journey as they could do on the reinstated rail link, or do a different journey (e.g. driving in a different direction to connect with a train at another station) that would not be done if that rail link returned? What proportion of relevant car journeys is that?
Sadly, I see too many apparently good public sector projects that are trumpeted when they get going but are actually pinpricks in the larger scheme of things. Yes, they do provide benefit for a few, inclusion being important. Look instead at the private railways run largely by volunteers, which are expanding and providing services useful to the local communities as well as for leisure visitors. If the trackbed of this Leicester to Burton line is preserved, the supporters of the line should develop it themselves - maybe not as a heritage railway, but perhaps as a light rail service with modern vehicles.
Some public money is needed for these private railways, but mainly to put in the main line connections and the reinstated bays at the stations where they connect to Network Rail metals. Get the WSR into Taunton, for example, running all year round with some light rail vehicles - but at the same time be careful that it does not make the 28 bus route unviable.
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