Happy Birthday Congestion Charge - 1 Year Old Today! (Brighton Next Please)

[London Calling]

people do moan about the state of the tube and the buses but everytime I vist London (and I've worked there for 6 months) I found them all to be a real joy! Buses were every 2mins and the tube was a quick and convenient way to get from one side of the city to the other? What do people want? If they want to reduce congestion then they need to stop working in London!

There is NO WAY that you can reduce the congestion on the tube. There are only so many trains you can fit down there you know. One simple way is so walk! Most people who visit London think that everything is miles apart because London is so big! Bollocks. The city centre is actually quite compact and it is often quicker and a lot more pleasent to walk. They should improve the provisions made for commuters with bikes though. The new rolling stock has NONE! Good way to keep people out the tube!

Companies need to let more staff work from home. At least on a part time basis. The job I do doesn't require me to be in an office. As it's only down the road I choose to go there anyway. However, if I were doing the same job in London then I wouldn't. Why do companies all rush off to London rather than base their companies nearer to where the staff live?

It's not a change in the transport we need it's a change in the way we work!

ACTUALLY LAMMY THEY CAN RUN MORE TRAINS UNDERGROUND AND EVEN MORE OVERLAND TRAINS. MANY METRO SYSTEMS IN EUROPE, MOSCOW, JAPAN RUN TRAINS EVERY MINUTE THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

THEY USED TO IN LONDON, NOW WE DOWN TO 5 MINUTES FOR THE CIRCLE LINE ETC.

 

[London Calling]

The issue of the buses pisses me off something rotten. The trains and the tube get oh-so-much media mention (and quite rightly - they are shocking) but no-one gives a toss about the buses. But then, the better-off take the train, the poor the buses - so why would the media give a toss?

about £300 k for a bus. rich people can't afford buses.

LC

 

[Lammy]

ACTUALLY LAMMY THEY CAN RUN MORE TRAINS UNDERGROUND AND EVEN MORE OVERLAND TRAINS. MANY METRO SYSTEMS IN EUROPE, MOSCOW, JAPAN RUN TRAINS EVERY MINUTE THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

THEY USED TO IN LONDON, NOW WE DOWN TO 5 MINUTES FOR THE CIRCLE LINE ETC.

And I bet they get moaned about to! Does anyone actually use the Circle line then? It's so shite I never bothered! Most (if not all) of the stations on the route can be reached faster by other lines or by using the bus.

Apart from overcrowding, the Northeren, Victoria and Backerloo lines are as sweet as! And they do run back to back in peak times.

 

[Yorkie]

the whole point is that you shouldn't be living so far away from your work place. And if you do, live somewhere near a public transport node.

LC

It usually starts off that way but after a few years your company then decides to start saving money by centralising and relocating.

That happened to me twice in 25 years of working for the electricity company and so during the last 7 years I worked for them, I had to endure the M62 at 7am (the busiest stretch of motorway in Europe)& 5pm everday.

 

[CHAPPERS]

It's astonishing how much people complain about public transport in London, the tube network does work and the buses are good, as mentioned earlier in the thread.

The best place i ever went for public transport is New York. For ten quid you can travel on the subway and the buses unlimited for a WEEK!!

 

[Highfields Seagull]

Bad luck Yorkie. I hate the M62 at rush hour with a passion (unless I'm going to Hull as that bit is always empty). Alas I'll be experiencing it this evening as I'm off to Manchester

 

[Yorkie]

Bad luck Yorkie. I hate the M62 at rush hour with a passion (unless I'm going to Hull as that bit is always empty). Alas I'll be experiencing it this evening as I'm off to Manchester

I finally got out of that rat race 18 months ago following redundancy.

Going westbound isn't too bad after junction 26 (Chain Bar) unless there's been an accident.

There was talk of making one of the lanes on the M62 multiple occupancy only.
That would be horrendous.

As for public transport, that was totally out of the question. To get from Huddersfield to Bradford in time to start work the first bus (of three) would have had to have been at 6.30.
The distance is only 12 miles.


The first bus doesn't start until 7am around here.

 

[ChutneyStirrer]

there is a real anti- Congestion charge going on especially with the London media. Car-commuters only made up 1 out of 10 commuters before the charge came in. Nearly all of these drove to their office and back home. They did not shop with their car.

In addition London and LOndon shopping is swelled by Tourists.

John Lewis has bleated recently. Even before the Charge no one just drove to John Lewis and did a bit of shopping. Its not a corner shop, its a massive Department store.

I think the Iraq war and the massive impact it has had on TOURISM, is the real answer to lost in trade.

LC

If you mean the Evening Standard it is because they are the Daily Mail in another cover and hate Livingstone.....

Also, outside of rush-hour, which is crowded, the buses and tube are superb.... as are the buses in Brighton.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Mind you, seeing as how the gutless wonders in the council haven't even seen fit to pedestrianise London Road, thereby doing a grave disservice to pensioners, mothers with pushchairs, the infirm, or just anybody who objects to being hemmed in on a pavement for no good reason at all, I guess we shouldn't really hold our collective breaths eh?

London Road and Lewes Road are the two nettles that really need to be grasped.

What Brighton have done so far is to shift the balance between car use and public transport access in the direction of the bus.

The bus lanes and the bus priority in Western Road, North Street and from the Steine to St Peter's Church have significantly improved bus reliability and reduced bus journey times. Result = many more people are using buses and real alternatives to the car now exist for many people who live in the city.

The next challenge is to deal with cars coming in from outside. Solving that problem is not in the gift of the City Council. It needs better rail access, focused on Brighton - and that's not going to happen as long as South Central, Thameslink and the Strategic Rail Authority think their priority should be commuter business into London.

Until car travel remains the main mode of transport from outside the city, London Road and Lewes Road will remain key parts of a highway network. And shoppers in those streets will continue to be pushed on to narrow pavements.

It's a difficult problem. Dismissing the council as "gutless" is a tad harsh.

 

[Sussex on Leith]

Actually I think Edinburgh will be next.

Oh actually, what am I worrying about, very soon we'll have a state-of-the-art tram system, delivered on time and on budget, just like the Scottish Parliament...

And more importantly, I don't drive.

 

[Locky]

Bollocks to congestion charges...............we are paying far to many taxes as it is........................the motorist is having the piss taken out of him/her..................Try working on the road going from location to location in Brighton..............They have already turned it into a one way street ...........with narrowed roads and speed bumps everywhere.......all this has doubled the time it takes me to do my job..........................Any congestion charge would have to be passed on to our customers ......................So yes Bollocks to it all......I pay enough taxes as it is !!

Rant Over

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Re: Re: Happy Birthday Congestion Charge - 1 Year Old Today! (Brighton Next Please)

London Road and Lewes Road are the two nettles that really need to be grasped.

The next challenge is to deal with cars coming in from outside. Solving that problem is not in the gift of the City Council. It needs better rail access, focused on Brighton - and that's not going to happen as long as South Central, Thameslink and the Strategic Rail Authority think their priority should be commuter business into London.

Until car travel remains the main mode of transport from outside the city, London Road and Lewes Road will remain key parts of a highway network. And shoppers in those streets will continue to be pushed on to narrow pavements.

It's a difficult problem. Dismissing the council as "gutless" is a tad harsh.

I beg to disagree m'lud. IMHO it smacks of the same council inertia that's led to certain key sites around town laying derelict for DECADES and has allowed the West Pier to fall into the sea. Pick any town at random, say Bromley, Slough or Eastbourne and every last one of 'em has a wide pedestrianised shopping (High) street. London Road is absolutely crying out for it, it would instantaneously rejuvenate this most decepit part of the City Centre. Cars coming into town are already diverted to the left at Preston Circus. Don't suppose it would take much to do a similar kind of thing on the way out of town also. And they should just rip up the roads completely in the North Laine instead of leaving it to individual traders to place their cafe-bistro-type tables in the middle of the road. Brighton just wasn't designed for the volume of traffic it gets - and the train isn't the answer.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Re: Re: Re: Happy Birthday Congestion Charge - 1 Year Old Today! (Brighton Next Please)

London Road is absolutely crying out for it, it would instantaneously rejuvenate this most decepit part of the City Centre. Cars coming into town are already diverted to the left at Preston Circus. Don't suppose it would take much to do a similar kind of thing on the way out of town also.

I don't disagree with that, THPP.

In fact, that was the plan that was being developed in the early 1990s. However, to make it work and prevent left-turning traffic backing up all the way to the King and Queen, it needs the demolition of the shops on the western side of York Place (and that pub on the corner - the Northern - and maybe the supermarket at the beginning of London Road).

There was huge opposition to this from the public. The pub was given listed building status to protect it. And St Bartholemew's School kicked up a big fuss about the effects of increasing traffic flows in the vicinity of the school.

The Council basically gave into this pressure and dropped the plan. You blame the Council. I blame the public - for not seeing the potential benefits. The public won the argument and delivered the knockout punch when they elected Green councillors in St Peter's Ward to replace the Labour councillors who were backing the scheme.

The lesson that the rest of the Labour Group learnt from this was that it may be better to be "gutless" than to be an ex-councillor.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Cheers for the background m'lud