What would you do if you were minister for transport?

[TheGrew]

Everyone seems to be complaining about how transport is covered by the govenment so this topic is to ask what would you do?
I will start off
Firstly I would put buses under control (where by the govenment chooses where the buses run like in london unlike the free for all you get in other places)
More money to be invested in rail infulstructure including electrification, of certain lines (basingstoke-reading) to allow cross country trains to be powered electicly (or be it from 3rd rail and overhead).
Trams, and Trams galore (yes I have just been back from croydon) but trams realy could solve some serious issues in the bigger cities, this would bring us more inline with our european counterparts.
Keep roads open but greatly restrict the construction of new roads.
Intergrate transport systems so people can walk straight from a bus onto a train which is offen not the case in Britain.

So that is what I think, but the question is what do you?

[Ploes]

Trams, and Trams galore (yes I have just been back from croydon)

Why cant we get trolley buses back?!

[The Irish]

...
Intergrate transport systems so people can walk straight from a bus onto a train which is offen not the case in Britain.

One of the first things to do, IMO.
You can go from my hometown in Switzerland to the top of the Mount Jungfrau with one ticket for all the different railways. No need to hassle to by several different tickets at every station you change and by queing infront of a counter, just to miss the connection by a few minutes...

Then you need to have a governing body deciding where which lines will run and how frequent etc. You need to start adjusting timetables in a way that trains meet each other at certain major points and not just miss each other by a couple of minutes.

One of the big successes in Switzerland is about the connections. Trains are running in a way that they get into major stations such as Zürich, Bern or Basel shortly before the full hour and all trains are leaving shortly after the full hour. This way, you can guarantee short connection times. In most stations, overland buses timetable are adjusted to meet the trains at the stations.

There are many things to do in Britain and if Europe is to learn something, then it is that privatisation in the way done in the UK is certainly not the way forward.

[TheGrew]

I envy the swiss system

[patter]

Trains under nationalised control, with many smaller lines run as a public service, subsidised by incomes from more revenue-generating lines.

Buses under local Town & County council control.

[lws1984]

Un-privatisation.

However, each reigion gets it's own colour scheme/design, to keep it from looking boring. Also, less money put into road maintennace, so that people are encouraged to take trains. Also, more trams and trolleybusses.

For London, I'd put in a bus that's similar in design and principle to the old Routemaster, just for kicks, and the fact that they're easier to board.

Finally, work on actually making things run ON TIME.

One final thing:

A place to make tea on each train.

[Dave]

I'd cry at the task I had to transform our transport system.

[Born Acorn]

Re-Nationalise. Stop trying to make a profit. Spend revenue on new things.

[Griff]

For starters, Nationalise..and undo everything Beeching did.

[pocketPC]

I would consider keeping the rails privatised but impose stricter rules on fares... I'd put a hold on all 'non-essential' (meaning if the project can wait) road building and plough the money into train line improvements... I would keep buses as they are but offer more incentives to bus providers - like - keeping other franchises they have...

Oh, and I'd ban Andel from the trains - whos with me?

[TheGrew]

For starters, Nationalise..and undo everything Beeching did.

That is going to be one big job, and unfortunatly some of it will be impossible to do, and beeching did close down some frankly silly lines.

[Griff]

For starters, Nationalise..and undo everything Beeching did.

That is going to be one big job, and unfortunatly some of it will be impossible to do, and beeching did close down some frankly silly lines.

I doubt they were silly for the people who used them.

[orudge]

I wouldn't cut funding from roads, personally. In many places, there simply is no viable alternative to road transport. Roads are still very important to our economy, and in places, work sorely needs doing. Before trying to encourage people off the roads, it's necessary to actually improve the public transport, make trains more punctual and reliable, cut red tape, and suchlike. And I shall finance it all from the money tree in my back garden.

[lws1984]

The only good use I see for roads is travel between cities, and busses. So an amendment to my previous strategy:

Decrease spending a bit from roads, but make one lane of each major motorway a bus-only lane, and keep that one immacuately maintained, with a relatively high speed limit.

[orudge]

Decrease spending a bit from roads, but make one lane of each major motorway a bus-only lane, and keep that one immacuately maintained, with a relatively high speed limit.

And how do you plan to actually make that happen in practice? Besides, sticking a bus lane on a motorway simply increases congestion, as every other vehicle is crammed into two lanes, whereas the bus lane is mostly empty! (Take a look at the M4 bus lane, for instance.)

Where possible, I would advocate the moving of freight from road to railways. Obviously, this cannot be done everywhere, but if we can remove the bulk of long-distance freight from the roads, it would help the situation there immensely, and be environmentally friendly and all that, too.

[Born Acorn]

For starters, Nationalise..and undo everything Beeching did.

That is going to be one big job, and unfortunatly some of it will be impossible to do, and beeching did close down some frankly silly lines.

If these "silly" lines were here today, you can bet the roadways would not be as packed, and would most likely be used well by the extra millions of people born since the sixties.

[Ameecher]

For starters, Nationalise..and undo everything Beeching did.

I was starting to like that post until the ... anyway. As Alistair says, Beeching did speak a lot of sense, like closing duplicate lines and lines that had a ridership of only a hnadful of passengers each week, I'm all for the railways not having to make a profit but that is ridiculous. It's thanks to Beeching that will still have a railway in my opinion, if things had been allowed to continue we would have ended up with something terrible.

I'd put Oxford to Cambridge re-opening fairly high on my list, it would be amazingly useful not just for passengers but freight too.

[atomicdanny]

What i would do:

1) Replace the Pacers (and then either destroy the pacers or send them to france )
2) Electrify As many lines as possible
3) Double line and Electrify the Marshlink line
4) Have a xc service from Dover - Manchester or Liverpool like there used to be (if its a voyager it would have to go via faversham because of a tunnel towards folkestone)

Here is a thought a service from Dover - Birmingham? via Kensington Olympia (since there is a connection just after wandsworth road which connects to the line through KO (3rd rail), i've been on a virgin voyager that went through there)

[andel]

Dover to Birmingham would have to either be via east croydon and around to clapham that way or somehow popping through stratford and over the top... or something - ahhh everything is over the top anyway!

Andel

[atomicdanny]

Dover to Birmingham would have to either be via east croydon and around to clapham that way or somehow popping through stratford and over the top... or something - ahhh everything is over the top anyway!

Andel

I have been on a virgin voyager that went through herne hill, and under the swt lines towards kensington (didn't go though clapham junction) and all these were 3rd rail though, wouldn't it be able to go though there?