Lack of strategic vision hampers restoration of goodwill

The London Assembly’s Broken

Rails report calls for a strategic plan for London’s railways (page 10, RAIL 867). John Varley criticises Network Rail’s lack of strategic vision on lineside vegetation (page 16, RAIL 867). Against a background of timetable chaos, strikes, project delays and poorly designed new trains, Stefanie Foster ( Comment, RAIL 868) declares that “goodwill has to be restored”.

But who will restore it when Britain’s railways seem to have forgotten what (and who) they are for?

A symptom of this lack of strategic vision is that new rail schemes are designed to solve yesterday’s problems, but fail to anticipate future needs.

For example, the choice of route for Crossrail 2 was driven by the existence of the Chelsea-Hackney scheme’s protected tunnel alignment, rather than by potential travellers’ ‘desire lines’ (direct routes between where they live and where they wish to go). Increasingly, people in Surrey and south west London want to head west to Heathrow, and east to Docklands and the Thames Corridor development zone.

Instead, Crossrail 2 will provide a slower, winding route to the faded arcades of the West End. For useful destinations, you’ll still have to change in overcrowded Zone 1.

Meanwhile, the London Mayor offers Sutton Link - a tram or busway from Colliers Wood or Wimbledon to Sutton. It will either duplicate existing bus and rail services or replace Thameslink services to the City with a slower, purely local, tram.

Crossrail 2 and Sutton Link exemplify poor transport planning- fragmented, inadequately researched, wastefully competitive, and missing the bigger picture. As a result, efficiencies are lost, regeneration opportunities are missed, time and money are wasted, and passengers are offered sub-optimal travel options on human-unfriendly trains.