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It’s been fascinating to read various articles recently about reopening schemes for closed and mothballed railways around the country.
A ‘bigger’ railway is a worthy cause and deserves as much support as we can give it. However, if we’re to really get more people out of their cars and onto public transport, reducing congestion in and around our cities, supporters of rail have to show more imagination in what we’re asking for.
It seems that many reopening proposals are founded (at least in part) on nostalgia for lines that look very attractive in old photographs, but which might not necessarily be the answer to our national or regional transport needs.
I’m not denigrating the efforts of campaign groups, which should be applauded for their dedication and persistence over the years (or even decades), but with the advent of city regions, ‘metro mayors’ and regional transport bodies we should be looking at the more urgent issue of decongesting our towns and cities, while simultaneously reducing air pollution.
For that, we need more ambitious and more imaginative schemes to take the railway closer to major traffic generators - airports, hospitals, universities, city centres, industrial and retail parks - and link them more effectively to where people live, as well as integrating them with our local buses, regional and national rail networks.
In many towns and cities, railway stations are hampered by their distance from these key traffic sources, extending journey times and often making rail less convenient than other modes. Rather than expecting people to flock to the railway, we need to make it the easiest option for as many journeys as possible - be it for work, learning, health or leisure.
As anyone who lives in the East or West Midlands or around the big cities of the North knows, road congestion is strangling productivity, soaking up our valuable time in traffic jams and on too-slow roads and railways unsuited to modern-day travel patterns.
There is no single solution to this - every city and region will require a different strategy. But if there is to be a more equal balance between the economies of London and the Regions, we need to be serious about investing in vastly better urban public transport.
This could mean tram-train, underground metro systems or European-style S-Bahn/RER heavy rail networks, or more likely a combination of all three, supported by a fully integrated bus network, cycling and walking routes.
Studies of the most productive and ‘liveable’ cities across the world always highlight those with the best - and densest - public transport networks, such as Hong Kong, Zurich, Vienna and Singapore… and London.
Transport for Wales appears to be on the right lines with its proposals for the new Wales & Borders franchise, and I look forward to seeing its plans unfold over the next few years.
There are some very worthy candidates for reopening across the country, and regional and national authorities should be pursuing the reopening of old lines wherever it is beneficial. But let’s not inhibit the massive potential for growth by restricting ourselves to the network inherited from the Victorians.