Safe Speed Forums

I came across this on the BBC news website:



Isn't it amazing that PT costs go up when subsidies are high and increasing and motoring costs go down when taxes are high and increasing?

If you were an economist, which form of transport would you wish to encourage?

Who wants to bet that the real cost (exclusive of taxes or subsidies) of motoring is around 20% of PT?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Has the cost of motoring figure been scewed by the much reduced cost of buying a new car eg via pcp, leasing or with competition from Europe reducing EU prices?

PT is inefficient and over priced. We pay a fortune in subsidies to rail and bus companies and still the service is woeful. Most of them are owned by Arriva so it amazes me when the bus and trains don't join up even though the same company owns the lot! Talk about a monopoly. A large proportion of local buses aren't even road worthy.

I wonder if there is money to be made in maverick bus services that say have free seats but you have to endure advertising or sales instead while you are on your journey? There is definitely a market for luxury bus travel ie without the school kids, drooling pensioners and nutters but with comfortable seats and wifi for commuters as I expect mixing with people they wouldn't normally puts some off from using the bus at all.

Perhaps it is something to tackle with Richard Branson? He seems the kind of benevolent billionaire that could do something, although I don't think his Virgin Trains run more on time than any others. He is also peeved with HMG so he might be interested in a road pricing busting scheme that would reduce congestion and therefore make road pricing unnecessary.

that means nothing to me. at the moment, i pick my truck up on an industrial estate. no public transport goes there and its a 20 minute drive in my car. road charging or not, public transport is of no use to me. i cant use it to get to work

other than work, i go shopping. i have a tesco local but what about pet supplies? i have to go to falkirk. i got a xmas tree in linlithgow yesterday. how long would that round trip take? i will point out that if i need pet supplies, i use the tesco next door in falkirk rather than the smaller local one

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

Paul - I'll think you will find that bus subsidies are actually (and have been for some years) decreasing rather than increasing - it's what the man in charge of Staffs CC PT subsidies tells me anyhow...