Transport in Wessex - today and into the future
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-07-04 10:12:19 - Graham EllisYesterday, we drove to Chippenham and back - three of us in a five seat car. The three of us then drove to Atworth, and two drove back to Melksham. One returned to Atworth, and then three of us from Atworth to Potterne, two of us on into Devizes, and two back from Devizes.
Look at all that fresh air we carried around during the day ...
2 seats, Melksham to Chippenham
2 seats, Chippenham to Melksham
6 seats, Melksham to Atworth
3 seats, Atworth to Melksham
2 seats, Atworth to Potterne
3 seats, Potterne to Devizes
3 seats, Devizes to Melksham
And - believe it or not - we were being more efficient than many. For only one of these journeys was there just one person in the car. And two out of the five people who were in the vehicle during the day used some other form of public transport as part of their journeys - and that saved the need for more vehicle mileage for pickup runs.
Last Monday, I had to pick up something at a shop in the centre of Bath - at short notice and they couldn't/wouldn't ship. So I thought I would go on the bus that leaves Melksham Market Place at ten past four, getting to Bath at four fifty, then getting my precious package and coming back on the train - to arrive at Melksham station at 19:11 - the same time that a customer was arriving, so I could give him a lift to the hotel. So I parked, a couple of minutes after 4, at Melksham Station.
I walked up the station approach, crossed the road, and crossed the railway bridge heading for the nearest bus stop (the buses pass the station approach, but no-one has actually provided a bus stop there!!) ... and as I headed across the bridge, the bus I was going for went past me. I looked at my phone (clock synced to a satellite) and it confirmed that the bus was running early - it should only just have been pulling away from the town centre, several stops previous. Of course, I should have known better - some of our buses are notorious for running early [link]. Anyway - I carried on to the bus stop to see when the next service was.
Well - there's a bus stop sign there. But there's no shelter. And there's certainly not one of those nice "next bus due" signs that you'll see in smaller but posher towns like Bradford-on-Avon. And, more critically, there isn't even a printed timetable. I'm trying to remember if the stop sign even had routes or destinations on it.
Always the optimist, I crossed the road to the bus stop where people get off if they're coming from Bath. It of course has a shelter. It also has a timetable board, which contains the current 271/272/273 time - but ONLY in the direction out of Bath. There's a nice area of blank space where it would be so easy for someone to have put a timetable for the other direction too. But no-one has actually done that.
Hmm ... I suppose I should simply take the car into Bath ...
But, no, there's a bus at half past each hour to Chippenham, and I can get the train into Bath from there with enough time to shop before the 6 p.m. shop closing, then get back for 19:11. So I walked over the station bridge, onto the next fork of the road (my goodness - no-one has provided a footpath along the side of this road from the station to the bus stop) and up to the stop outside Aldi. For route 234.
You'll probably guess ... no shelter (nice day, not worried), no electronic "next bus sign". (not suprised - after all, this is Melksham not B-o-A) and no printed timetable. Oh - never mind - I know they're at half past the hour or so.
16:30 comes. 16:40 comes. No bus. Plenty of cars with plenty of empty seats. A couple of private buses running empty, and lots of private coaches passing on this trunk route from Glastonbury to places north. But no service 234.
A horrid though, and a scramble to look up the bus times on my mobile phone (big struggle - I'm tempted to say that no-one has actually put bus running information into an easy app, but I may be being very unfair - it may be there, but not to my knowledge). And - guess what - there isn't actually a bus at 16:30. 13:30, 14:30, 15:30 ... yes - but as we get to the time of day that people are going home, there's a gap of an hour and a half in what's a "clock face" service through the day. I'm sure it makes sense to someone, but it sure as heck leaves a gap in provision at just the time that provision would be reaching its peak usefullness!)
Hmm ... I'll simply have to take the car into Bath ...
And I did. The sad thing is just how quick and easy it was. I know Bath a bit and where the traffic jams, so I went through the back of Bradford-on-Avon, up Brassknocker Hill and back down Widcombe Hill, and parked roadside in Widcombe. Free parking for an hour, spaces available at that time of day, and a pleasant walk over the river and under the railway. Package collected, back to the car and back home (down Claverton Hill to avoid the jams at that time on Brassknocker) ... and I was early enough to be home in time for an hour's break before goong back to the station to collect my visitor.
I'm told that - almost alone amongst British Counties - that the CO2 footprint of Wiltshire, at the core of Wessex, got worse last year. And I'm told that one of the possible solutions being looked at is to try to reduce the amount of travelling that people have to do. I've been asked what my opinion is of that - bearing in mind that I'm pressing for an improved train service, and that removing people's need to travel could reduce the case for said service.
For many people, time spend travelling is time wasted. If you're driving a car you are allowed to listen to the radio, you can think (no law against that!) but you can't write / make notes. On a bus, writing and making notes is often impractical. So cutting people's needs to travel using these modes has big advantages over and above the CO2 advantage, and it makes big sense. I've always felt there's an irony at holiday times when lots of people from London go to Devon and Cornwall - places around Exeter and Plymouth, and people from Exeter and Plymouth go to London for a holiday; it's ironic but understandable as it broadens people in a way that staying at home would not. But less understandable / justified is the daily commute by of many miles and several hours. If the "several hours" average commute time can be reduced, if more could be done during that commute time, and if the CO2 of the journey can be reduced at the same time, that'll be excellent news. The actual mileage is, I think, pretty irellevant.
So how do we do it? Well - yes - we should plan and move towards jobs closer to home. That's not to say everyone should work from home; there get to be balance points. Communities too small and you don't get the benefit of size. Too large and your logisitical problems grow. The British Government spend twice as much per head of population subsidising pubic transport in and around London than in the rest of the country - that's partly because the unit cost per head of population is higher as journeys have to be longer, but also (I suspect) because the civil servants who advise on the decisions are mostly London based, and that their political masters are in London at least during the week.
But planning jobs closer to home is only a part of it. We can help reduce the travel time too, and we can help people who wish too make travel time more useful. Let's say I've got an appointment that neds my physical presence in Swindon. I could drive - 60 minutes. I could take the bus - 100 minutes. I should be able to take the train - 25 minutes and useful time too because the train is far more suitable to be a mobile office. Just think about that last case - get on a train into London and see how many people are working at their laptops. And think how many would be using their laptops driving up the M4.
Rail use has grown - in spite of escalating prices - and that's a case of people putting their mouth with their money. Truely, a railway can suit current and future requirements. It's far better, CO2 wise, to run a train with 200 seats, even if 100 of them are empty, than it is to run 3 buses, or 50 cars. And that's 100 people making better use of their travel time, and furthermore that travel time is reduced.
In fact - rail growth has grown so much that in places the system is running at or near capacity, and that presents investment problems based on the need for extra infrastructure and the way the system is structured because of previous political decisions. But there are some places where you've got the line capacity, you've got parallel roads clogging up, and you've got people who are tearing their hair out on those roads wishing they could use a train that ... doesn't run at the time they need it.
The prime example here is, of course, the "TransWilts". Trains from Swindon to Salisbury at 06:16 and 18:45, and NOTHING in between. A return service that doesn't even start from Salisbury - the 06:04 from Salisbury gives you a 30 minute wait for a connection at Westbury, and the second train of the day drags into Swindon at 20:20.
The question I was asked was "should we reduce the amount of travelling people have to do?".
Yes - especially if we interpret that to mean reduce the CO2, reduce the time taken, and especially reduce the time WASTED. How?
* Reduce numbers and needs for journeys.
* Provide proper INTEGRATED transport, with good information and running on time not early.
* Provide transport that provide a QUALITY of use for travel time.
There are some cheap but radical options here. In Utopia, rail and bus services run hourly, and connect with one another, with the bus service being used for the legs of jouneys too and from the stations. Information about the times that service run is easily to hand, and there's an system that keeps people informed of any disruptions, and advises on alternatives. Where a car journey is necessary (and sometimes they are!), drivers put a destination board and number of empty seats in their window, and other travellers can flag them down and get a lift. For short journeys, and short transfers to and from pubic transport hubs, a good network of footpaths, cycleways, and indeed cycles and mopeds are available for hire.
What is surprising, if you look around, is that you see some embronic shoots - some locally, some far away - towards Utopia. It isn't THAT radical - but it's a long way off at the moment. Yet now - with a squeeze on money and on CO2 - is the best time to take us there.