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semihere · 20-10-2006, 17:49

Public transport has never been the same since the Tories privatised it.

Labour always said they'd sort it out as a matter of principal if they ever got back into power... we're still waiting for NooLabour (with your Tory policies!) to honour their word.

It's a sad state of affairs when your only viable means of travel beyond mainline stations or town centres is a car (be it private or a taxi).

Have you noticed the sad irony of Blackburn's new 'car-dealer disctrict'. Based on Whitebirk Drive, you need to have a car to get to it. So how does somebody looking for a first car get there? Ridiculous.

Where I live there used to be 6 different bus routes which would get me within a couple of minutes walk of home for a reasonable fare and with so many buses I could more or less guarantee not having to wait more than about 10 or 15 minutes to catch one. These days there's a single bus service which runs around an amalgamation of at least 3 of the old routes (the others no longer being served at all) - taking about 1 hour to get from the town centre to my nearest stop (it's only a 25 minute walk anyway!!!) and you're lucky if you can catch a bus after 5pm - I think there's about 1 every 2 or 3 hours perhaps.

The excuse given for there being a reduction in services is that there's nobody using the buses. The problem is that nobody uses them because the service is so bad. The worse the service gets, the fewer passengers they get, so they reduce the services further, driving more people away from the buses... it's a vicious circle that, like I initially said, started with the privatisation of public transport.

Go pretty much anywhere in Europe and you'll see publicly owned and run transport systems that are clean, cheap and efficient - so there's no reason it can't be done here. Otherwise start getting somee exercise, because when the oil runs out or the roads reach complete gridlock (whichever happens first) we're all in for a lot more walking - especially with most shopping facilities being built further and further from town centres.

20-10-2006, 17:49	#2
semihere Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 57 Liked: 0 times Rep Power: 0	Re: Amazing Train Service Public transport has never been the same since the Tories privatised it. Labour always said they'd sort it out as a matter of principal if they ever got back into power... we're still waiting for NooLabour (with your Tory policies!) to honour their word. It's a sad state of affairs when your only viable means of travel beyond mainline stations or town centres is a car (be it private or a taxi). Have you noticed the sad irony of Blackburn's new 'car-dealer disctrict'. Based on Whitebirk Drive, you need to have a car to get to it. So how does somebody looking for a first car get there? Ridiculous. Where I live there used to be 6 different bus routes which would get me within a couple of minutes walk of home for a reasonable fare and with so many buses I could more or less guarantee not having to wait more than about 10 or 15 minutes to catch one. These days there's a single bus service which runs around an amalgamation of at least 3 of the old routes (the others no longer being served at all) - taking about 1 hour to get from the town centre to my nearest stop (it's only a 25 minute walk anyway!!!) and you're lucky if you can catch a bus after 5pm - I think there's about 1 every 2 or 3 hours perhaps. The excuse given for there being a reduction in services is that there's nobody using the buses. The problem is that nobody uses them because the service is so bad. The worse the service gets, the fewer passengers they get, so they reduce the services further, driving more people away from the buses... it's a vicious circle that, like I initially said, started with the privatisation of public transport. Go pretty much anywhere in Europe and you'll see publicly owned and run transport systems that are clean, cheap and efficient - so there's no reason it can't be done here. Otherwise start getting somee exercise, because when the oil runs out or the roads reach complete gridlock (whichever happens first) we're all in for a lot more walking - especially with most shopping facilities being built further and further from town centres.