Public Transport

A vast and contentious subject.

What, where, when, and why? Are questions which need to be asked in relation to peoples usage of public transportation. Obviously different means of public transport will be appropriate to different journeys.

The distance you are going to travel, the reason for your journey, convenience, and what you wish to transport with you, are all things which need to be taken into consideration.

Public transport includes... aeroplanes... which will only be suitable for longer journeys. You will have to take into consideration the time taken at the airport, having to be there an annoyingly long time before boarding the plane, plus the time waiting for baggage at the other end. Checking in and out adds hours to what would, otherwise, be quite a fast method of getting from one place to another. And another thing to consider is that you are bound to have to get to and from the airport by another method of transport.

I suppose we should include boats in this list of transportation methods. Though there will be few cases where this method of public transport will be appropriate [except for holidays]. I know that boats are used as a normal mode of public transport on the Thames in London... but then I think people in our capital city have more choices than most of the country.

Trains can be divided into long distance travel; and short distance underground journeys [where again London is well served]. One word sums up my thoughts on the long distance train service... expensive... I'm afraid my thoughts are 'am I buying a ticket here, or will this amount of money buy a share in the business?' Quite frequently too, one needs to use another form of transport to complete the journey.

Trams... where they run... they can be a useful addition to existing public transport.

Buses and coaches... again where they run they are a useful method of transport, depending on where they go and what you need to carry on them. They normally have the added benefit of being competitively priced. The downside is that they can get stuck in traffic, and if you are using them to connect with other forms of public transport... you might possibly miss it if there has been an accident slowing the traffic down, or just through volume of traffic.

I have omitted the taxi from this list, just because it is another form of car.

For those of us living outside the major cities... consider this... without a car it is a major hassle to travel from one place to another when they happen to be about 30 miles apart.

Consider this... the railway station or bus station being about 15 minutes walk away. What if you are elderly or unable to walk? What if it is tipping down with rain? A taxi? Expensive. Not a good start. Then an expensive train ride, or is there a bus? And what about at the other end... neither train nor bus station is conveniently placed for where you have to go, so we have the same problem all over again. What if our appointment in that town is early in the day?

You have two clear options... use public transport and start out a day in advance OR go by car.

This is just one simple scenario which I am basing on a journey to a hospital about 30 miles distant.

Then the government has the brass nerve to state that we have more choice and should drive less, or even get rid of our cars.

Please read my first post, and let me know what YOU think of the government's 'integrated' transport policy. Does goverment policy add up?

I won't even start to mention my opinions on the state of 'local hospital trusts' or we could be here for w e e k s.