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From:H. Stuart Cunningham
Dear Aidan: As a boy I lived on Manchester Road, Denton. I used to think of Crown Point, a few blocks to the East, as the center of the universe. One of my earliest memories was of the V-E train all brightly lit up rumbling past the house late at night. Another is of pea soup fogs so thick that we got off the tram and walked as it was faster. As to your suggestions, I also remember that there were virtually no cars on the road. If you wanted to travel, you took the bus or tram! On the downside I also remember the occasional string of trams lined up behind one that had broken down. Trams -- or I suppose we should use the modern argot -- light rail vehicles -- have much to commend them. But, they are fixed to their rails which introduces a definite inflexibility. Trolleys suffered, albeit to a lesser degree, from the same problem. They had a limited operating radius if something happened to the electricity supply. If there was some kind of blockage, the conductor would get off, pull the trolleys down, get back on, signal the driver who, if there was enough juice in the batteries, would drive to the nearest spot with clean lines. Then the conductor would get off again, put the trolleys back up, get on and the journey would continue. I experienced trams and trolleys and the demise of both not only in England but also in the Chicago area. When I arrived in the States trams ruled. There was (and is) a fast light rail system that runs (mostly) on lines elevated above street level. While it is doubtless true that decisions by the various authorities were often based on the vagaries of trends and fashions, the demise of the kind of reliable public transportion you long for is generally attributable to two trends over which local and even national authorities have little control: the love of the car and economics.
Ridership invariably drops as car ownership increases. Most folk seem to prefer slogging along at 5mph in rush-hour traffic in the privacy of their own vehicle to the often uncomfortable experience of public transportation. If this seems odd it should be remembered the the car drivers can smoke, if the spirit moves them. They can also listen to music such as Bach or even the Beatles rather than having to endure the latest in Rap supplied by the boom box of the sullen youth sitting next to them. As to the economics, the conductor is a fine case in point. Why have most of major suppliers of public transport switched from two-person to one-person operations? Cost. Wages are a significant part of the cost of providing public transport. There is also the little point that most travel by bus still takes place during two peak periods. If you were running a bus service and wanted to provide economical service, you would like to have more drivers (and conductors) at work around these peak time than at other times. The drivers (and conductors) prefer a nice regular day, not one split into two shifts. The economics can be viewed at an immediate level. Pick a nice wage level for the driver/conductor, one that allows compensation to some degree commensurate with the level of stress a person ferrying 50+ persons through rush-hour traffic. For each hour of pay, how many paying passengers are providing fares? 100? 200? 400? Adding a conductor increases efficiency on loading only marginally, so the additional salary probably doubles salary operating costs. Now imagine the same bus on off-peak hours. The same salaries, but only 20 to 100 passenger hours. In the end the economics require either single person operation or large subsidies from tax revenues and probably both. Check into the economics of the trams in the cities of Eastern Europe. I would be amazed if the cost of a ticket covered the operating costs of the trams. There is also the little matter of culture. While Brits may not be as demonstrative as the Yanks in the 'rugged individualist' approach to the world, there is a streak of bloody-mindedness in the culture of Merry Olde that can rival anything the Marlboro man can muster. While OAPs and students are stuck with the bus and tram, most of the John Bulls and Uncle Sams can be relied upon to be wholly antisocial and stick to their cars unless bullied by the taxing powers of authorities to do otherwise. In the end it's a question of who determines what's best for you: you or your local transportation authority? H. Stuart Cunningham Warrenville, IL USA PS. Before retiring I used to commute 37 miles (one way) to work. Most of the time I used the commuter train, a far more civilized and cleaner form of public transportation than the buses and trams I once travelled. But if my wife accompanied me, I drove. I had a parking spot in the building where I worked and she didn't much care for the fixed timetables of the train. Some very good points, but the fact remains that in Eastern Europe they do have trams and in Salzburg they do have trolleybuses, so why can't we have them here? Where there's a political will, there's a way. Thank goodness for Metrolink
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 13:03:56 +0100 Dear Aidan, As a regular user of the buses in Regensburg (Germany), I was interested to read your report and views on the buses in Manchester. I am convinced that it would be an excellent thing to send the Manchester transport planners out to a place like Regensburg, where public transport is excellent. Advantages of the system here in comparison to Manchester and other British towns and cities include amongst other things the ticketing system, which covers all bus operators and the local trains which are coordinated under an organisation called Regensburger Verkehrsverbund. This means that with one ticket you can hop freely from bus operator to bus operator to train on one ticket. There are also very good ticket types: a weekend ticket, week ticket, monthly ticket and year ticket (reduced prices for those on lower incomes such as students and apprentices), which allow unlimited use of the whole network (including surrounding towns and villages) within the duration of the validity of the ticket. In a move to encourage students like myself to use public transport a new "Semesterticket" was introduced this year which gives unlimited travel on the whole network (stretching two thirds of the way to Nuremberg) for six months and costs DM 53,- (approx. stlg. 17, tho«I«m not sure what the exchange rate is at the moment). In addition, bus passengers are encouraged to buy tickets from ticket machines and newsagents rather than on the bus which has the advantage that the thing actually runs on time because all the driver has to do is drive. The buses themselves are much more modern and state-of-the-art than in England: two or three doors for easy access and lots of room for pushchairs and wheelchairs and bus stops announced from a recorded tape and displayed on an infra-red display (useful for the blind, deaf and strangers to the town who aren«t sure where their stop is). I haven«t bothered investing in a car and just use my Semesterticket and joined a car-sharing scheme in the city for the occasional times when I might need a car (do they have commercial car-sharing schemes for people who only need a car occasionally in Manchester as well? The subscription here is DM 20,- per month or DM 5,- for students). Where did we go wrong? All the best, Dominic
Scaife
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