Is faster be er?

Before a single penny is committed to the Reading Mass Rapid Transit system I would like to ask all of the councillors involved in the decision making process this basic question, Is faster really better?

Cutting the journey from reading station to Thames valley business park by 5-8 minutes may seem like it is better than the current system, but surely we could spend a lot less than £30 million and improve the journey considerably more.

For just a few thousand pounds free WiFi could be offered on all the existing buses.

For a few hundred thousand pounds a year you could make the journey FREE!

For a million pounds you could add two more buses to the route and cut the fare in half.

For a couple of million you could employ the world’s top models to hand out free Dom Perignon 24/7.

I am sure all of these solutions would be preferable to commuters than simply making the route faster, and the last solution may even result in commuters asking for the buses to be slowed down.

With the money saved councillors could then invest the remaining

£29m+ in something beneficial to

all residents, like building more affordable housing, protecting our green spaces, transitioning refuse collection to Wheelie Bins, or even better giving every teacher, nurse, police and fire officer and all other essential workers in the borough a local pay increase.

Okay, so some junior managers at Microsoft and Oracle may not have a faster journey to work, but surely the benefits of wifi, more frequent and cheaper bus services and knowing that essential workers can afford to live in the community that they serve so diligently would more than compensate for not saving five to eight minutes on their commute?

£30 million can be much better spent.

Gregor Murray Wokingham