Better public transport is just the ticket

BIRMINGHAM has revealed plans to impose a workplace car parking levy on the city centre, suggesting the nice round figure of £500 per space.

The excuse for this additional burden on businesses is that, in the interests of clean air, car use in the city must be reduced.

Such a charge would certainly have to be borne by the employer, for otherwise, recruitment, already difficult due to fairly full employment, would only become more problematical.

I have been travelling into the city centre to work for the past 65 years and lately the journey takes longer and longer as additional traffic is squeezed into less road space with the advent of bus lanes and the amount of roadworks.

So, I would suggest to Birmingham travel bosses that instead of upsetting people with the imposition of an additional tax, perhaps it might be a good idea to see how matters can be improved by providing swift, cheap rail services.

Currently the Redditch-Lichfield Cross-City Line has been enormously successful, as has the new electrified connection to Bromsgrove.

There is a ten-minute service from Longbridge, and passenger numbers continue to increase.

It demonstrates that car users, if offered an alternative way of getting to work quickly and at a fair price, will forego their cars.

In my early years, there was a very good network of trams, and this is also the key.

I suggest that a look at some of the old tram routes, coupled with seeing what could be achieved by reopening long-closed railway lines, might be a start.

Drivers do not wish to sit in their cars wasting fuel if a more efficient way of transport is provided.

Modern trams will cope with inclines just like their old counterparts did in yesteryear, as the tracks to the Lickey Hills proved.

Rather than just imposing taxes to deter motorists, a little encouragement to use public transport would not go amiss. After all, Birmingham needs a vibrant city centre – which will not happen if there are tax deterrents.

Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm

AE Harris