These days, travel is an extremely hot topic.
I was travelling in on a train today, and I questioned if a construction site I saw was anything to do with HS2, perhaps Britain’s most feted construction project to date.
It wasn’t clear if it was, but anyhow, it made me question it, and I guess that means HS2 is indeed a major topic, and it’s worth questioning it myself, in light of larger concerns about transport across the UK.
It’s something I use, after all.
It’s important to me because I use it so often, and for so many different reasons, that it’s also important to me that it’s there, and keeps running well, on time, and when I need it (that’s the purpose of public transport, after all).
It isn’t clear, though, that everyone has these thoughts in mind.
It seems like travel isn’t seen as so important as it is, to all of us, such as the annual ‘horror’ over passport delays, flight cancellations, and resultant ruined holidays.
It’s just a mess, if you ask me, but not if you use it. In my view, public transport works well, if you’re headed in the right direction.
It’s what public transport is for, also, in so much as getting us to the right places in a convenient, and acceptable, way.
Those places are the places that require us, need investment, and make this country tick, such as London, for example – our capital.
It’s the heart and soul of the nation, and it’s a centre of most of what keeps us here.
The transport links are good – even excellent – but the complaints center around the experience while you’re here.
Take for example the controversy over Ulez, a new system for penalising drivers because of ‘climate change’.
It hasn’t gone down well, at all, which is a reason why so many have taken to the streets – and YouTube – to spread their complaints over the mayoralty of Sadiq Khan, and his program of reform of London’s roads.
It isn’t a bad thing to tackle climate change, or air pollution for that matter, but it’s another pain in the bum for people who just want to get on, or just get to work, or whatever.
It isn’t necessary to get another bill, surely?
The complaints don’t stop there, but they extend to buses, underground services, and even taxi’s (which Khan seems to have a problem with, anyway).
This is all a bit of a mess, but then that’s public transport for you.
