4 days ago
Readers say transport spending should finally focus outside the capital
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Further to your report on the government's £15.6billion transport plan (Metro, Thu). London Assembly member Elly Baker asks why the capital isn't getting its 'fair share'.
Since the 1980s, UK taxpayers have helped to renew much of London's transport networks above and below ground, with new Tube and rail lines, rebuilt rail terminuses, new buses, and now the Elizabeth line with its cathedral-like stations.
By contrast, services between Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds are slow, crowded, and unreliable.
Southampton station is almost unchanged since the 1980s despite a huge increase in passenger numbers. There are many similar examples.
London shows that good public transport is essential for a city to flourish – investment in other cities' and towns' infrastructure is long overdue and only fair. James Sinister, Brighton
London has had more than its fair share of support and filled its boots at the expense of other parts of the UK.
This current plan is about levelling up and giving neglected regions a fair share of transport funding, belatedly. G Dawson, Merseyside.
While the transport projects the government is supporting are a big step, there are notable omissions.
From what I have read, the East Midlands projects seem to be concentrated in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, which have more than 20 stations each – fewer than 42,000 citizens per station.
In contrast, Leicestershire has just ten stations and Northamptonshire a paltry six – that's more than 70,000 citizens per station.
Yet there are relatively straightforward remedies to this. In western Leicestershire, a railway still open to freight and the occasional diversion connects several towns that would benefit from a restored passenger service and reopened stations.
In Northamptonshire it is even easier, as many towns lacking stations actually have passenger railways going through them. What's more, separate fast and slow trains run on one stretch of track and the latter could easily serve two extra stations. There are similar examples in other regions.
So let's see transport investment in parts of regions lacking in them as well. Charles EL Gilman, Mitcham
Ryan Cooper (MetroTalk, Mon) responds to the claim that we have 'lost control' of our borders by saying the world would be better without them.
Does this mean he doesn't want any more Olympics or World Cups and will no longer support Britain/England in those competitions as, without borders, there'll be no countries?
Also, does this mean that I – and anyone else for that matter – can just rock up at his home, barge our way in and make ourselves comfortable because, without borders around countries, there won't be any borders around his home and consequently anyone can just enter as they wish.
I bet he would say that's 'different' and be quick to call the police, citing trespass, in that situation.
Also, what would you do about infrastructure and building places for people to live when everyone is concentrated in one small area of the world? Surely having too many people in one area cannot be good for those living there. Jon, West Midlands
I think Ryan Cooper is being a bit naive in thinking that no borders is the utopian answer to the world's problems. There will always be those who want more than others. There will always be a hierarchy. More Trending
What is he expecting, a benign world government with the interests of all at its heart? Dream on. Remember the great Soviet Union experiment. Or maybe the French Commune. John, Orpington.
Amanda (MetroTalk, Fri) says Clark's call for a £300 licence to deter people from owning cats is prompted less by his concern for the millions of birds and small animals they kill and more by the fact that he 'probably has cat issues, because he was a mouse in his former life'.
Well, I don't believe in reincarnation and I didn't when I was a hamster, either. Carl, Leed
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