Unpublished to the Times October 2003

The train now arriving from Paris is 9 years late

Sir, Giles Whittell’s article of 27th September points out that the high speed rail link to the Channel tunnel is 9 years late. What is missed from the article is that the tunnel together with the links each side of the Channel cost £25 billion compared with today’s market value of only about £1 billion. Hence, this great Engineering feat is equivalent, in financial terms, to burning £24 billion, enough to build the residential accommodation of a town with a population of 600,000 souls. On that basis it is a great pity that the Tunnel itself was not delayed for another 100 years.
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The importance of going by bus

On 29th September Ben Webster points out the relatively small proportion of road taxes which the UK spends on transport compared with other countries, but without providing the actual amounts spent per head. Probably the differences arises because the UK taxes its motorists more highly than others do theirs. But, the key item in the article is the chart which show the generally trivial contribution made to movement by other modes. That is largely because the bus and train are incapable of serving the journeys we make by car.

Hence, if climate change or fuel shortages force us to abandon the car, we may expect a change of life style rather than that public transport will ever serve us as the car does.
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Our declining rail system

How refreshing it is to find Ben Webster on 26th September pointing out that if the railways were scrapped tomorrow the number of lorries would grow by only 8%, highlighting how unimportant (except to London’s commuters) rail is to the life of the nation.

However, if ever a railway is abandoned let us hope that the route will be preserved and converted to a motor road. If that policy is pursued then one day all London’s rail commuters may find themselves seated in motor coaches instead of travelling in the crush conditions they presently enjoy.

After all, it is over 30 years since Donald Morin, Chief of Public Transport in the USA, pointed out that one lane of a motor road could carry 50,000 passengers per hour all seated - sufficient to satisfy the peak at Waterloo, where there is room for 3-4 lanes each way. (Contrary to public perception the replacement express coaches would use less fuel and impose a casualty cost on passengers half that of the train’s, bringing joy the Greens and everyone except perhaps train spotters).

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