New metro would be colossal waste of money, and of very little benefit

IN 1916 the US city of Cincinatti decided to develop an underground metro system. In 1948 they abandoned the attempt as too expensive. It was never built.

Bristol should be very wary about building an expensive underground transport system. It would be stupid to present this as a salvation for Bristol’s traffic challenges.

It is a convenient fantasy solution, which would not work and which would cost billions of pounds which we cannot afford!

We need instead to sort out the overground transport in Bristol.

More and more people are taking to walking, cycling, e-bikes and e-scooters. This is personal transportation which gets people around quickly and cheaply at low cost and zero pollution.

The era of the private motor car is coming to an end, just as the era of the fixed landline came to an end with the take-up of the mobile phone.

The future will be simple, cheap, quick, zero pollution transport, not ludicrous white elephant projects.

Building an underground Bristol Tube after the pandemic would be like the French building the Maginot Line after World War I – they failed to understand that things had changed, and their static line of defence was easily overcome.

A new metro as advocated by the current mayor would be a colossal waste of money for no gain, just like the Maginot Line.

We should instead look to the evidence before our eyes of more people walking, cycling and going on scooters.

We can foresee a time when car drivers come into the centre from long distances on buses, and then use cheap bikes to get around.

More people are also abandoning their cars and are taking up cycling. These trends will continue and we should provide for them.

We might need a change of Mayor for that.

John Wood Bristol