Gov to Manchester: No new trams without road pricing

Gov to Manchester: No new trams without road pricing

www.theregister.co.uk

Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, has made it clear that Greater Manchester will lose £1.5bn in central government funding for public transport if local people don't agree to the use of road pricing for motorists.

“There is no Plan B. I would not want people to be under any illusion about that,” said Mr Hoon, referring to the proposed Westminster-funded road pricing and public transport package in an interview with the Times. The citizens of Manchester are currently being polled in a local referendum on the plans.

"If the vote is ‘no', there will be no central government funding," said Mr Hoon. “There will be plenty of other cities looking to take up the opportunity if Manchester doesn't.”

(visit the link for the full news article)

On the face of it, there isn't that much of a conspiracy angle to this - well, other than the government holding a city to ransom or at least threatening to take their ball home.

However, it's this paragraph that's possibly the most interesting:

The scheme would see heavy investment in public transport infrastructure including trams, bus lines and trains. But there would also be a network of detectors and a system of electronic tags and prepaid accounts for motorists.

On a purely personal cost basis, Manchester's congestion charge is less than London's. However, whilst London's method of monitoring is camera-based, the proposed Manchester scheme includes "electronic tags" for cars.

Also, London already has the Tube as well as a buses, which whilst not ideal is still better than no Tube at all. A lot of this funding is to develop Manchester's tram system that only serves very selected areas: our equivalent of the Tube if you will.

The whole thing has been a farce from start to finish. Manchester desperately needs the public transport system overhauling as it's now monopolised by one firm and, in a lot of areas, the access to buses has suffered greatly over the years despite fare prices being amongst the highest in the country.


www.theregister.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is some pretty dirty work from "our" government...

however, living on the very edge of Greater Manchester, I think its a great idea. Buses and trains where I live are prohibitively expensive, are quite infrequent, are slow, smell bad, finish early...

but we've been promised that if the public say YES to the congestion charge (which would only affect people driving into Manchester in the morning and out at the evening rush hours), then we will get new bus shelters, a new shelter for the train station, and more buses and trains running earlier and later as well as more frequently.

Which is great, IMO. As an ex-driver I'm stuck with public transport for the forseeable future, and the dire state of it is preventing me getting a job, because half the time I just can't get there.

It's what I need to get my life back on track. Right now I'm stuck in a little dead-end town, this will help expand my horizons exponentially.

If you live in Manchester, please vote YES! It might cost you money if you drive...
but with all the extra trains, cheaper trains at that and all, it would be cheaper to get the train to Manchester from almost anywhere in the area than it would be to buy and a run a car for the purpose.
It makes sense people!

reply to post by selfisolated


Don't get me wrong, I'm a non-driver myself who is in favour of public transport generally - despite issues with the Stagecoach monopoly - and really wants the overhaul of the transport system. It's just I really, really don't like the way the government is going about this at all.

I don't understand why Manchester is having a radio tracking system when London doesn't. I don't like the way they've dangled the funding like a carrot then taken it away again already a few years ago - I know someone who's house had a compulsory purchase order placed on it - lost a lot of money - because his house was on a proposed tram path on a plan that was scrapped the last time the government had problems with giving over money to Manchester in this scheme.

What's worse is the government keep changing their mind about funding regarding how far they'll take they tram network into my area. The proposal as it stands is a nonsense as it stops halfway a long the major bus route into Manchester, meaning that for nearly all where I live (Tameside) it means we'll still have to catch buses to Manchester (or catch a bus in order to catch a tram), even though, on those routes the buses will actually be cut because of the tram (semi) provision. It looks like my town will actually lose out on a large scale because of this.