Sustainable development of public transport after the Beeching report
Sustainable Public Transport in Britain – Railways or Roadways
Introduction
In today’s world, time is of the essence. Almost every activity is weighed against time in order to judge its worth. Travel has perhaps been the only task that has been measured in terms of time since the beginning of time. As the world shrinks further due to the rapid growth of cities and suburbs, the importance of good transportation facilities becomes all the more visible. This proposal identifies measures for the development of a sustainable public transport system while ensuring the highest value to the users over a period of the next seven years.
Current Scenario
The infamous “Beeching Report” and its implementation have left a rather large blemish on the public transport system of Britain. The report caused several villages to lose connectivity via railways to the cities; a problem that persists even today. Add to that the reduced size of the overall network; even the sizable investments over the years have not been able to improve the state of the railways by much. According to the most recent reports, the railways cover a meager 16,116 Km as opposed to the roads that cover almost 400,000 Km. Still, according to a report by the ORR (Office of Rail Regulation) a total of 58.3 billion kilometers were travelled by the people in the year 2012. This goes to show the kind of stress that the railways is currently under.
The automobile industry has come a long way from 1963 when the overall standards and quality of the automobiles was very low. However, nowadays with the prevalent use of technologies such as the anti-braking system, seatbelts, airbags etc. the automobile has become a very safe option for transportation. Additionally, there are several choices suiting various needs. In such a situation, it is only natural that the commuters prefer to use cars. As a result, even the roads today are finding it very difficult to handle the high volumes of traffic.
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Introduction
In today’s world, time is of the essence. Almost every activity is weighed against time in order to judge its worth. Travel has perhaps been the only task that has been measured in terms of time since the beginning of time. As the world shrinks further due to the rapid growth of cities and suburbs, the importance of good transportation facilities becomes all the more visible. This proposal identifies measures for the development of a sustainable public transport system while ensuring the highest value to the users over a period of the next seven years.
Current Scenario
The infamous “Beeching Report” and its implementation have left a rather large blemish on the public transport system of Britain. The report caused several villages to lose connectivity via railways to the cities; a problem that persists even today. Add to that the reduced size of the overall network; even the sizable investments over the years have not been able to improve the state of the railways by much. According to the most recent reports, the railways cover a meager 16,116 Km as opposed to the roads that cover almost 400,000 Km. Still, according to a report by the ORR (Office of Rail Regulation) a total of 58.3 billion kilometers were travelled by the people in the year 2012. This goes to show the kind of stress that the railways is currently under.
The automobile industry has come a long way from 1963 when the overall standards and quality of the automobiles was very low. However, nowadays with the prevalent use of technologies such as the anti-braking system, seatbelts, airbags etc. the automobile has become a very safe option for transportation. Additionally, there are several choices suiting various needs. In such a situation, it is only natural that the commuters prefer to use cars. As a result, even the roads today are finding it very difficult to handle the high volumes of traffic.
It