Star comment: Transport management proves you just can’t win
Commuters and the local business community will be aghast at new reports showing the way traffic is managed.
Rail fares are being increased today while parking wardens in our local towns are handing out more tickets than ever. It is a double whammy in which people are damned whether they use public or private transport. There seems to be no escape from increased regulation and increased cost.
When it comes to the issue of policing our towns against errant motorists, then of course wardens must be deployed to guard against those who flout regulations. There should, however, be a better balance between the need to keep our towns fluid and welcoming and the need to apprehend the rule-breakers.
Like a good referee in a football match, wardens ought to keep things moving – rather than spoil things by being too punitive. And the new figures simply reinforce the view that councils use wardens and parking restrictions as a cash cow, rather than a means of keeping our towns ticking over smoothly. The figures for main streets in Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth make for unpleasant reading and one wonders whether a point will not be reached when the wardens have a negative effect: deterring people from visiting rather than encouraging the free flow of traffic and pedestrians.
Commuters who use trains will despair that rail fares are being increased again. While the Government remains committed to a multi-billion pound HS2 project and seems able to find the money for that, it cannot support existing rail lines.
Those with first hand experience of local trains will know perfectly well that over-crowding, inconvenient timetables and other issues are a daily grind. The benefits of using railways instead of cars have become increasingly difficult to see. And while railways bosses say they need to increase fares so that they can afford to invest in better services, few commuters can point to tangible improvements in recent years.
In reality, many will conflate the increased cost of using railways with the increased risk of parking in local towns as a twin-pronged attack on those using transport for either business or pleasure.
While authorities ought to make things easier, more attractive and more efficient, the reality is the opposite. Transport is becoming more expensive, riskier and more prone to delays and on-the-spot fines.
It ought not to be beyond the wit of our rule-makers to make life easier and more attractive to locals and visitors alike.
